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thirsthourdemon · 4 years

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Headcanon on their online platforms but mainly on Twitch, onlyfans stuff, patreon, tumblr

Includes: Demon bros + undateablesss

Genre: Crack, Fluff and slight smut

Warnings: NSFW mentions

||Lucifer

-He didn’t have a big online presence because he was active, no no

-He had an online presence cause everyone always sees him on Diavolo s pictures and such so for a time they shared an audience

-One time Diavolo and Barbatos were doing a thing where they read a book aloud for some sort of game

-Diavolo kind of recorded that for a little bit

-ASMR I TELL YOU

-People liked it so much they suggested for “the one with the deep cold voice”, luci, to do asmr on youtube or something

-He doesn’t know what an Onlyfans is however he does have a patreon.

-Diavolo was interested in the idea and discussed it with him

-HE BLEW UP CAUSE EVERYONE WAS FREAKING OUT OVER HOW AMAZING HIS VOICE WAS OF COURSE! 😡

-His fandom consists of either people who are interested in what he reads or...Horny people who get off at how proper and low his voice is

-His profile picture is a picture of him with his head cropped out where he’s fixing his gloves

-Luci isnt like super famous but he has a loyal fanbase that appreciates him a lot also lots of simps with daddy issues

-He was confused as to why someone would ask him to be their father

-He gets the daddy kink but why???

-Last post: A picture MC took where he’s holding a whip cause mammon fucked something up 🙂

||Mammon

-Bold of us to assume he didn’t already have one

-You already know why he’s on here.

-He has random content but he mainly got his audience since he kind of tried modeling thing for a while. It was for a big brand on their new jock type jackets

-Mammon really wanted cash at that time and he got the thing over and done with making him a couple more grims richer

-The photographers told him they could transfer the pictures though! So he just saved his pictures because “Who wouldn’t want a picture of THE mammon?”

-That gave him the idea

-His audience? Whoreknee

-They even accept the fact that his captions for some pictures are “You should be honored you get pictures of me”

-He posts that with a blushing face half of the time HAHAHAHA

-Levi found it and just laughed at the pictures

-Surprisingly enough the pictures were actually well taken because MC was forced into em

-His most popular picture was the one with him was actually a picture that the brothers took of him tucking in what appeared to be goldie on a seperate MINI BED WITH A SMALL TOY LAMP BESIDE IT

-He did a QnA for his followers to celebrate on his instagram

-PFFTT He got so many questions about Goldie

-Was dubbed “Goldie’s Daddy” after that

-Last post: A picture of him wearing the new Luxury brand jacket he got and his keys in front of his car with the caption “Daddy’s going for a ride”

||Leviathan

-I’ve always head canon that Levi knows how to draw digital emotes. Like he just picked it up cause he wanted to make fanart of him in henry together 😔

-Also has a red bubble or an etsy where he sells some prints and stickers of fanart 👀

-He went on twitch since there were so many TSL streamers there who just played games while they discussed theories as well

-Levi is an emote artist and while he draws he sometimes just discusses the theories with his fellow Yucky Otakus

-He’s the type to really interact with everyone even though he barely does that in real life

-Sometimes though when he gets packages that fans sent or ones that he ordered he’d stream unboxing them.

-He hates showing his face? Oh dont worry He’s wearing a facemask and all that

-His fandom is genuinely into him. Like they actually like him as a person but kinda once got into a scandal on gatekeeping

-He took a break for a bit but he kind of said sorry and everyone just forgave him because he isn’t really the type to do drama and it was just that one instance-

-Overall loved by the community due to how chill he is and how invested he is on fan theories

-He has a twitter btw and lemme tell you it’s just threads and threads of discussions

-Whenever he does stream unboxing videos though and he shows his shelves everyone freaks out how he has EVERY FUCKING VOLUME OF EVERY ANIME AND GAME

-People sometimes ask him personal questions and he tries his best to try to answer them but he shows a face where he looks uncomfy

-Everyone just bullies anyone who makes him uncomfy giving his fanbase a very protective reputation

-Last post: “Unboxing fanmail L8er @ 10pm LOL CYA GUYS XD”

||Satan

-He has a tumblr. You cant tell me he doesn’t have one.

-He had tumblr like back in the old day though like when porn was still available here.

-Get this...He’s known all through out the academia blogs. He INVENTED Academia

-Satan has 1 blog and that’s it. It’s his main blog and he just posts pictures of the book cover and does essays, reviews or sometimes he writes the ending he wanted to happen.

-Dont get me wrong he has a patreon but only because people loved getting more exclusive takes of stuff like his book notes on certain pages or sometimes his notes and thoughts on Artistic Erotica

-Probably has a Ko-Fi because he though he needed it after most of the blogs he followed had it

-He thinks it should be “Table of Content” and not “Masterlist” so he uses just that

-Profile picture is him wearing his signature washed out green grandma sweater while he has a book in hand and a cup of earl grey on his table

-People go to him falling in love with his aesthetic and Book reviews but they stay in love with him because he is big on one on one discussions actually

-He goes for one on one voice calls where he just...He talks to you about any book of your choosing

-Fans send him tea but he knows better than to eat something a stranger gives so he makes beel take a taste first sometimes but ultimately scolds the boy when he takes too much

-He wasn’t supposed to have merch but everyone liked the idea of small packages (More like letters) that really do look old and vintage

-He usually only give those to the people who pay for the top tier stuff

-It usually contains 1 type of tea, a letter he wrote for them himself and a bookmark with his name stamped on it

-He got the stamp custom made ❤️

-Last post: (Insert 5k word essay)

This is what I thought of Edgar Allan Poe’s “A cask of Amatillado”

Playlist: (Insert soft classic Music playlist on Spotify)

Tea: Black Currant

||Asmodeus

-ONLY FANS THROUGH AND THROUGH

-Is a brand influencer as well

-The brand ambassador of this pretty well known semi-luxury skin care brand

-His devilgram? Perfectly made by his PR team which is just him and solomon

-Before I move onto the NSFW stuff I want to emphasize how Beautiful his instagram is and his aesthetic

-His aesthetic is romantic/sexual tension/Unparalleled beauty

-Also a make up brand influencer and has his own make up line

-something along the lines of “The Devil’s box of charms 🖤”

-The type to DG live whenever he’s just showing off the make up look he did or the outfit he got

-The house of lamentation may have PR packages stacking up due to how most of them have an online influence but out of 10 boxes 7 of them would be for Asmo

-OKAY NOW ONTO NSFW STUFF

-Lemme tell you this...He has a specific drawer and space in his closet just for the sexy outfits he has.

-The demon’s onlyfans has pictures of him just teasing his audience where he’s wearing a black skintight get up and his bulge is showing

-Nudes are for mid and top tiers

-His fandom loves seeing in stocking and chokers

-“The choker is from etsy and here’s the link to their shop~”

-He doesnt completely show his body but...Him in suggestive clothing gets everyone pre cumming

-His fandom is just filled with simps 😔

-He loves them and blows a kiss towards the camera everytime he ends a live

-Probably has had a scandal or 4

-Posted an Ahegao once and everyone lost it

-Has been the face for Ahegaos ever since

-Belle delphine who?

-Definitely tik tok famous too 😎

-Has memorized all of Doja Cat’s songs

-Last post: “Hope you guys are ready for tonight’s session~ 😈” With a picture of him in an Fuchsia and black themed lingerie set. A collar with a bell on it.

-Bonus: One time Solomon summoned him while he was taking pictures and he was still in his lingerie set. 😛

||Beelzebub

-Was originally inspired by Mukbangs Channels so he did them on youtube too

-You get his Mukbangs on your recommended, You subscribe because of his cute and funny reactions whenever someone in the backgrounds is astounded to how much he’s eating

-Everyone knew beel as a cute guy who just does Mukbangs and loves to eat

-He once did a fridge raid and ended up eating everything in the fridge

-That was THE MOST CHAOTIC VIDEO on his channel cause you can just see luci and MC trying to make him stop

-He eventually got a patreon because mammon told him people will give him more money for food like that and to be honest he made a patreon but mammon takes care of it from time to time

-Oh you knew him as this sweet beautiful boy who just likes eating? hERe HavE sOmE WorKOUt pICs

-His body got everyone thirsty or may I say Starving

-S I M P S everywhere

-His patreon content is just him making small videos eating or pictures of him being all sweaty from the gym 😛💦

-“DADDY BWDONMXMSKC PLEASE FEED US”

-“Eh? You should feed me instead” *opens his mouth*

-Fans send him lots of boxes of weird food to see his reaction sometimes

-Did the fire noodle challenge a bit late but everyone is surprised to how he isn’t giving the reaction like they expected him

-Spice tolerance? Unmatched

-His fandom is either “UwU Beel please eat try this!” Or “Daddy Please FEED US WITH YOUR DELICIOUS THIGHS! 😩🥵💦💦💦”

-He does the service where he sends you his body building pictures except he isn’t sending them, Mammon is.

-Manager Mammon 😎 Gets a half of the profit

-Can I just...BeelProbablyHasnevergottenintoanyscandalbuthasalotofhaterssayingthefansonlylikehimforhishandsomefaceandgreatbodyandnicevoicebutlikewhatiswrongwithlikinghimbecauseofthosethings?Itisntbadtolikethatstuffatall

-Last post: “🍙 Thank you to @(Your Username) for the Onigiri! I finished the whole batch! Please send more food”

||Belphegor

-Sleep Guru

-Im sorry but I cant see him having any other social media aside from tumblr, twitter and Devilgram

-Belphie barely checks his phone but he has tumblr because apparently there’s a thing called the SandMan’s Box Community

-It’s like LootCrate, a subscription service that gives you stuff like Comfy Pillow sheets and tea for better sleeping

-This even gives you something like sleeping masks or ear muffs.

-The community is well...nocturnal

-His ask box is always full of his 100+ mutuals who just discuss stuff with him

-Whenever he actually does try to type online he makes articles about the best sleep positions or stuff like that

-His fandom is just loving mutuals who sleep and take care of each other

-They have a discord server where it just plays soft music to help everyone sleep

-Last post: “Humans aren’t so bad when they’re asleep”

||Luke and Simeon

-He has a big following on twitch where he just bakes sweets in his cute little hat and-

-Clearly you can tell I follow him on twitch

-The type of twitch streamer that no one hates on because why would you? He is literally just baking and cute comments

-Sometimes he streams with Simeon and everyone loves both of them

-When people give money they dont give “money” no no...they call donating headpats

-Luke is just so adorable that everyone just...

-“Angel Lulu’s Protection Squad⭐️”

-He got famous when he...He doesnt want to call it a collab but He made a lot of sweets and gave them to beel so everyone freaked out and thought

-THE SWEET BOY THAT EATS A LOT AND THE ANGELIC CHILD THAT MAKES SWEETS A LOT ARE FRIENDS?!

-He is now pissed that everyone thinks they’re friends 😠

-Basically his fans started making dishes and candy inspired by him

-Sometimes they send it in and Simeon has to confiscate some because

-“Im sorry, guys. You are all really sweet and I know that you mean well but Luke isn’t allowed much sweets yet”

-No one ever EVER lewds luke

-Fortunately Luke’s fandom has the least amount of pedophiles because everyone drives them away the moment they try something

-Whenever luke does fan mail/unboxing videos people just adore how Simeon places a glass of water at the table below the camera and the scissors or cutter he uses is child proof

-Even though Luke is the main person on his account everyone also notices Simeon.

-How couldn’t they? He looked like he wanted to make everyone in the audience live a better life

-Add that with luke’s wholesome baking and BOOM! You are now ready for a better life🌟

-Last post: It’s a picture of Luke shyly showing of his new batch of sun and moon shaped sugar cookies. “Sun and Moon. Tune in later at 3 pm to see how we made these!”

||Solomon

-He barely posts but he helps asmodeus with his stuff

-Too busy with anything else but helps out when things get interesting

-Proposes Ideas for Asmo sometimes when the demon doesn’t know what to wear for a live or a story

-Laughs at Asmo sometimes when he gets into scandals and drama

-Happy cameraman ❤️

-People follow him because 1.) He’s hot 2.) The fans ship him with Asmodeus

-Last Post: “When will you learn 🙂”

||Diavolo

-He is a vlogger~ Not a very active vlogger but a vlogger nonetheless

-He films anything he can but he’s more known on tik tok and devilgram rather than twitch or youtube

-People have been thirsting for him ever since and no one can convince me that they dont just shamelessly call him daddy whenever he goes on live

-Barbatos makes sure however that whenever it isnt appropriate anymore that he would tell diavolo to turn the camera off

-Wranggled Luci into his mess and now everyone knows the face of that one dude who just reads documents

-Everyone lowkey ships them

-Diavolo is the type to take a picture of a big meeting or a retreat out of instinct to just document his life

-He actually didnt know about vloggers before but he just liked the thought of documenting it

-Everyone picks up “Master” vibes as they say from him hehehe

-He doesnt have an Onlyfans or patreon 😔😔😔

-I honestly would have subscribed to his services

-Last post: “Barbatos made a delicious meal for us at the retreat today” Along with a picture of the Beautiful Demon Delicacy Spread in the table.

Taglist: No one yet (Please be part of the taglist for more content like this ☹️ It’s getting really discouraging)

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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Ducktales: Terror of the Terra-Firmians! (Lena Retrospective) (Commission by WeirdKev27): Launchpad Looses his Last Brain Cell and I Loose My Patience

Welcome back Weblena Warriors to the second part of my look at everyone’s favorite Emo Teen Shadow Lesbian Duck... and probably the only one but hey, semantics, Shadow Into Light, which was made possible by viewers like you, the ultra humanite and a commission from WeirdKev27. Picking up where we left off, we have our first episode that has a different intended order than airing order.

As most of you probably remember, but some of you who joined later might not be aware of the broadcast order for the first half of season one is, in the academic sense, pretty fucked. It’s not Darkwing Duck’s entirely fucked by a web of badger spiders and a queen snake on top to make it some sort of train situation, but by just sorta airing whatever episodes they wanted to, Disney messed with the character balance so Huey got less focus, not that he got a ton of focus this season but still, as well as leaning into the episodes focusing more on the kids with less involvement from the adults which gave the wrong impression about the series. While it IS very focused on the triplets and webby, the show isn’t entirely about them, but as Frank has mentioned a few times, Disney Channel apparently has this WEIRD thing where they assume kids won’t like stories starring the adult characters.

Yeah I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a while. Mostly how it’s so dumb I could swear Pauly Shore was an exec at Disney Channel. And he might be I don’t know what he’s doing these days and i’d like to keep it that way. For starters, the Scooge comics, while barely published in the US these days, are still popular globally and have appealed to kids and adults for generations and are mostly focused on him, with the kids in a supporting role and Ducktales, you know the thing your directly remaking here, was also mostly about him with the triplets supporting, if a bit less than the comics. Most of the Disney Afternoon was about adult characters, with any kids in side roles in the main cast. And it comes off entirely hypocritical of them to say this when the MCU is easily marvel’s biggest cash cow at the moment, and marvel properties have appealed to both kids and adults, like the duck comics, for decades. And if it’s because the marvel cartoons weren’t doing well , I’ll let you in on a little secret: Those didn’t do well because they looked bland and from what I’ve seen of them felt kind of bland, though I haven’t seen enough to fully judge. Kids LIKE adult characters as much as kid characters, and also like teen characters despite not being teens. Focusing on either is valid and while I LIKED Disney’s youth starring shows I also want another X-Men cartoon before I turn 50, and I bet kids would like that too, with the last one only failing because you bailed on it because you were throwing a hissy fit over fox having the movie rights, and do not get me started on that. Point is this argument is horse shit and should stay in the stables.

So yeah I do think this episode came too soon and it’s placement effected it at the time and as such it dosen’t have the best rep with the fandom aside from the Lena bits and that includes me. The fact it was very early in the series and the characterizations hadn’t yet sunk in really hurt this episode in places but is it really that bad? Join me under the cut to find out

We open at the movies! Which scrooge apparently hasn’t been too since the 1930′s or seen any on video despite Della existing and being really stubborn.

A rant for another episode. But the kids just got out of a Mole Monster movie, along with Lena, Beakly and Launchpad. Their reactions are as follows: Lena, Webby and Dewey really enjoyed it, Huey found it unrealistic... says the boy whose uncle fought a dragon made of gold a month or two back but we’ll get to that, and Louie was bored and felt it didn’t have enough of the ultra violence, kids these days it’s not about the gore it’s about the tension. And Beakly.. is just pissed Lena tricked them into seeing this and said it was educational. And the more I think about it the more this sounds like BEAKLYS fault than Lena’s. BEAKLY is the one who likely bought the tickets, who saw it was likely an r or pg-13 and who as we’ve seen HAS A PHONE, and ulnike scrooge probably isn’t so stingy she wouldn’t spring for a smart phone, so she could’ve just googled it, or whatever bird related pun is in this version.. gandered it.. yeah let’s go with that, gandered it, and SEEEN it wasn’t appropriate or walked htem out of the theater and ate the cost if she was that bothered by it. Sitting through a Horror Movie you didn’t research, didn’t pull the kids out of and dind’t bother to even check the poster for or use basic common sense is YOUR fault. And this could’ve worked fine, had Lena talk the kids into begging for it or had launchpad take them and have Beakly find out after, having driven to pick them up as she didn’t trust launchpad to take them home. Instead it makes the former super spy look REALLY stupid and feels really out of character for a SPY to not to do research. And it wasn’t like they decided on this later, Bentina being a spy was part of the character’s backstory from day one and its made clear as early as episode 2 in both airing orders. This is just lazy writing to justify the episode and I expect better from this crew.

But an argument errupts between Huey and Webby over the Terra-Firmians, a hidden race of rock people living in Duckburg’s discontinued sewer system, allegedlys. So Lena suggest simply going down which gets a disapproving look from Beakly, despite you know this being their bread and butter, and the fact that if she had a problem with Scrooge not being involved.. she could just call him. Exploring fabled rock people is something he’d be into. I mean there’s a low profit margin but it also costs him almost nothing to walk to the theater or have launchpad swing around and pick him up. Just gas which given how much he pays for jet fuel isn’t a big ask. But Beakly soon gets distracted by Launchpad whose convinced the film is real and is attacking the poster a grim sign of things to come as while Beakly annoyed me in this one on rewatch, especially after realizing the above... Launchpad annoyed me both times and for VERY good reason we’ll get into. This provides a distraction and allows the trio to escape. Cue titles.

After the title sequence, our heroes head deeper underground, there’s too much panic in this town... I mean props to Donald for trying something new but he really needs to rethink his cologne choices. Sex Panther is just.. not a good smell on.. anyone.

So our heroes journey through the depths of the subway system, and we find out part of why Huey’s so skeptical, as he finds anything that isn’t in the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook to not exist, though the cracks in this already show as he’s added anything that does. We’ll get back to this later but as you can tell the basic dynamic for 24 minutes is Webby being a wholehearted True Believer and Huey being a Skeptical Sally. And Lena is just sorta “Eh gives me an excuse for shenanigans” about it. We also get a peak into webby’s mind as we see her notes .. which really just come off as Terra-Firmian fanfiction involving a war of succession between two sides, the terra’s and the firmies, something based on previous media, and also some doodles of a fictional candy called webby-dings and herself as a superhero, both things I want to see.

But yeah the first third of the episode is pretty simple, just them journeying, the occasional shift in the firmament, and it’s not bad, and there are a few great bits: Huey nerds out about rocks, and finds them way more interesting than a possible rock monster.

Which leads to the best gag of the episode as when Huey tries to pick up a big sample Webby, annoyed at his hyperfixation on the JWG, asks him to ask his book for help.. which he does by reading it and actually manages to pick the large rock up. This is halted though when Lena screams.. though she really just did it to draw them to an abandoned subway car full of glomgold posters for glomgold products because of course a failed subway project has his name plastered over it. You can’t spell glomgold without failure.. the failure is silent. Glomgold is not.

The fun is interuptted though by a livid Beakly who had realized they were missing in an earlier scene, after telling the Manager that McDuck Industries would pay for the poster.. and then found out Launchpad also destroyed the toilets “They come up thorugh the sewers!”. Launchpad that’s CHUDS, Ninja Turtles and Rats who raised Ninja Turtles like their own sons, mole people dig or use old mineshafts. It’s basic mole science. Also Beakly really shouldn’t sweat it, I just assumed the city has had a runnig bill witht he company for “McDuck Family and Employee Related Accidents, Mayhem and Shenanigans”. I mean he’s had Gyro on his payroll for at least a decade and a half by the series start, Gyro has leveled whole sections of city in an afternoon more than most giant monsters. Of which several have destroyed Duckburg. It got better.

Point is she’s livid about them sneaking off with Lena pointing out their some sort of adventure family and Beakly.. saying she won’t see them again, or at least implying it hard. I’ll put a pin in this, as the train buckles and a bit of seismic, or rock men, activity means their stuck. So they divide into teams: Beakly will go try and unhook the train car from the busted cars so they can ride out, Launchpad will go try and fix it, and we get this lovely exxchange as a result

Launchpad: Cool never crashed a train before Beakly: Can’t you try driving it without crashing it? Launchpad: Wha?

His face in that scene is priceless. He takes Dewey along. More on that in a second. Webby, Huey and Louie are told to stay put with Beakly only bringing Lena along because she dosen’t trust her. So since we have three split plots for a second... let’s split up gang, starting with the most aggrivating, middling with what you all came here for and why this is part of the retrsopective, and ending with the plot that directly heads into the final part of the episode.

Launchpad and Dewey: GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Okay starting with the most infamous plot and easily the worst part of this episode, probably the worst plot in any Ducktales 2017 episode. That’s not hyperbole it’s really that bad and really pissed people off, as fans of the original launchpad felt they made him overly stupid. This is where the airing order’s a problem as putting an episode with a subplot where one of your characters is obnoxiously dumb right up front means they assume this is his charcter and not just one poorly written chapter in a very dumb but very loveable characters life, likely because the writers hadn’t figured out how to properly scale his stupidity with comptience.

So as a result we get a good 3-4 mintutes if not agonizingly more of Launchpad assuming something he saw in a fucking movie film was real. That.. that’s his actual plot. Need I remind you, he’s in his late 20′s early 30′s. He’s not much older than me. While other episodes have him as dim this one claims he CAN’T TELL FACT FROM FICTION.

There are lines you have to keep with your characters to keep the audience from hating them. They crossed it about 80 times with this plot and make Launchpad into a gibbering dunderhead who can’t do anything right versus a regular dunderhead whose good at one or two things and loveable enough for us to like him and not care about his numerous safey violations and child endagerment charges. Thankfully this is the ONLY episode that gets this bad and they clearly learned from this, but it dosen’t make it any less of a tough sit.

Dewey spends most of the subplot with a look on his face that just screams that he’s as done with this bullshit as we are, as Launchpad assumes he’s a mole person and brought along a pipe to presumibly bludgeon him, because wanting to cave his best friends skull in over stupidity is a GREAT look> Thankfuly he does not. And when the lights come back on Launchpad.. assumes he’s a monster because of bright light, GAH, and locks him out before they end up outside and the plto resolves itself by Dewey pointing out by Launchpad’s utterly baffling logic that he could be a mole monster, so Launchpad.. assumes he is.

The subplot’s later buttoned up as he claims “I love being a mole monster”, again diffrent subteranian creature launchpad, she says he’s not and my suffering is thankfully at an end. This plot just sucks, it’s bad, overly stupid and dosen’t work with an adult character. Someone like say Ed from Ed, Edd N Eddy, or someone who belivies in weird conspiracy stuff like Dale Gribble or Stan Pines. with either of them this plot would’ve been fucking great. I could buy it from Dale and it just comes off as his normal paranoid weirdness. With Launchpad it comes off like he seriously needs help because the episode frames it as if he can’t tell ficton from reality, and his splotlight episode later would directly contridct this and make this episode even more aggrivating, as he’s a fan of Darkwing Duck, and KNOWS it’s acted out by an actor, so why wouldn’t he get this? It’s just....

It sucks, it sucks and I thankfully get to move on to a better subplot

Beakly and Lena: What You Are in the Dark

Beakly tells Lena she’ll never see Webby again after this.. then chastises her when she won’t help despite you know having just said she’s going to force their friendship apart, which Lena points out. She then gets mad at Lena making a sarcastic comment at her. Okay she’s lived with Louie for at least a week in airing order and a month or two in actual order. She has to be used to this by now. She’s insolent.. because you show her no respect, blame her for something that while sure she talked you into, you should’ve known better, and top it off by saying you want to keep her from the kids because they have bright futures and come from good familes and asks who rasied her and her face.. well.

Yeah wheras Launchpad and Huey, more on that in a second, were hurt by this being some of their earliest big roles, Bentina wasn’t.. until later when we found out just HOW bad Magica is to Lena and how much she dosen’t care about her other than as a tool to use. At this point we didn’t know just how much Lena was playing webby, how much she was only manipulating her, and even with her heroic act here we didn’t know if she only saw Webby as her way to break free. The next episode makes it clear she dosen’t and genuinely does care, 100%, so in hindsight it makes Bentina come off as ghoulsih for horribly asssuming about a girl she dosen’t know, and even if she did know about Magica wouldn’t know the full story, just like us, and then BERATING her after already saying she’s going to rip her away from Webby, which itself is PRETTY bad as she’s the only friend the girl has and sh’es doing so on... talking them into a horror movie, which as I outlined was more Bentina’s fault than Lena’s, and leading the kids into a dangerous place whicha gain, Lena pointed out is something she lets Scrooge do. And trust me i know that she actually knows Scrooge, and we later find out, as we’ll cover next month, that she isn’t ware HOW dangerous things are with Scrooge. It dosen’t change the fact she knows they do dangerous stuff to a point and that Lena may just be acting out. It also dosen’t change the fact she drove three children, yes including launchpad, down here with her instead of sending them home with Launchpad.. granted that option isn’t the safest but it’s safer than taking her with them thena cting like it’s ALL lena’s fault when three of the children, again including launchpad, are down there because of HER. Not Lena, HER. I’m harder on her because she’s older, wiser and was “raised properly” apparently. Though given the way she treats a random teen off the street she again knows nothing about and dind’t bother to ask... it begs the question.

IT’s a good question. I could see the classism coming from being raised in 40′s and 50′s britain, judging by the timeline.. but even then she’s seen the world, and while her nature is supscious, the classit bullshit makes no sense after presumibly working with, and later spymastering for, various agents of various backgrounds. How has she not dropped this in decades. Scrooge very clearly dropped the racisim and homophobia of his time, so it still stands on her for not dropping this. And Lena’s hurt shows under hte mask for the first time, that beneath the snark and secrecy.. is just an abused teenager with nowhere else to go and no way out being bullied by an older woman whose cutting off the only light at the end of the tunnel nto for good reason but out of classist, overprotective mallice. My issues, which to be fair probably were intentional in the episode but sitll are a bit overblown, aside we do get an absoluttley tremendous moment later as a car falls on top of Beakly.. and Magica, speaking once more urges Lena to leave her, let her die and let their plans progress. And while that iself is.. dumb, what if someone finds her or her corpse later, especially since Scrooge would likely perosnally want to retrive the body to give her a proper burial as she’s his only friend at this point, or the rest of the family questoin the story?, it fits Magica’s lack of foresight we see throughout the season. But Lena... saves her. While she later gives an explination, and a valid one at that, it’s clear from her expressoin, her actoins and how she does it... that this is her. Part of it is defiance, as she glares at Magica before doing it, her own stubborn nature mixed with her hatred of her “aunt”, meaning Magica just made it all too easy for her to do this. But the real reason is clear: It’s the right thing to do. While pissing off her aunt and getting away with it is the cherry on top.. the real reason is that unlike Magica.. Lena is not a killer, not a monster, and not a heartless vacum ofa person. Even if she doesn’t like Beakly, for good reason.. she can’t, she WON’T leave her to die and leave Webby an orphan again. She loves Webby too much to do that to her and while she may deny it.. she’s too good a person to leave someone to die for something so petty. Even if she never sees webby again and the plans ruined. It’s better than the weight of knowing she let someone who wasn’t trying to harm her and whose actions, while terrible, were out of misguided protection of her granddaughter, die like this. She saves her. And as we’ll see it pays off.. but before that.

Huey, Webby and Louie: Into the Unknown This plot’s a bit shorter, as Webby and Huey continue their argument, with Louie eventually making it clear, and not even hiding it when directly asked by Huey, that he’s playing both sides with a delighted expression on his face as the movie was boring but this, this is interesting. Which it is. But it’s interupted by dings on the roof and while Huey assumes i’ts just a regular rock, it moves while their not lookiung.. and soon red eyed, horrifying beasts look out at them and the kids flee back to the car. This dosen’t pan out as the car starts to shake and is clearly going to collapse.. and while Webby and Louie are prepared to flee, rock monsters or no, Huey, in an utterly heart shattering image.. stays in place, terrified of moving.

This is where this plot goes from mildly aggrivating, as Huey’s Skeptic shenanigans can get on the nerves.. to BRILLIANT. See at the time this was more annoying because it was assumed the skepticsim would be a part of Huey’s character and we’d get more episodes of him being annoying only to be proven wrong, as he semeingly dosen’t learn his lesson at this point, looging the terrafrimians in the guide book. But on rewatch.. this plot is amazing. For starters the plot subtly introduced the defening characteristic of Huey’s personality, one that’s become more prounounced in Season 3: His need for Order. He needs things to make sense: He solves stuff because he likes there to be order in the world and something he can understand, he can put in a box in his head. Like a lot of neurotypical people, myself included, he struggles horribly when the clearly defined boxes of his life and things he undestand have wrinkles or complexities he can’t get. I for instnace easily got it when I was introduced to the concept of trans people or being non binary.. they just make sense in hindsight: given how our brains are messya nd complicated it makes sense some people would be born in the wrong ones, and tht with all the science and medicine we have to correct that, should be allowed to transition if they so choose. It makes equal sense that some people just don’t have a gender or are gender fluid, being both or neither. Despite struggling with non binary prounouns due to force of habit.. I get the concept with no real difficulty. But when it comes to accepting I don’t have to apologize for everything and that everyone is not angry or that anger is natural and people sometimes get mad and you can’t and shouldnt’ fix it.. it’s something I STRUGGLE with even knowing it’s not right, because my brain is just wired that way.

That’s how Huey’s struggle comes off here.. he reveals he’s willing to stay and die.. because he’s SO scared of the unknown, that the idea of dying from something he at least knows what it is versus something he dosen’t.., so paralizyed by his own brain he can’t figure out the obvious.. it takes Webby reaching out to him figuratively and literally, to show him that sometimes you have to face the unknown. The unknown is fucking terrifying.. but it can be good and it’s better than sitting there, scared and unable to move. You have to try, to grow and take that risk that things may not go well to really LIVE.

So he does.. and they reunite with the rest of the group.. and soon find the terrafirmains.. who as it turns out once we get some light on them... are actually just goofy looking, brightly colored, each one matching one of the kids, kids themselves, and Huey reaches out and touches one, which by ET logic means their friends now, and the terrafirmians help them get out. And this lesson sticks. While sure Huey catalogues it and it seems it didn’t.. he’s never this skeptical again. This douchey skepticsim was only for one episode, his fear of the uknown replcaed with boundless curosity and from here on he’s CURIOUS about new stuff as long as it’s not trying to kill him. He loves taking in new experinces, maybe not to webby levels but he does actually try them and study them instead of just fearing them.

Before we wrap things up, obviously we need to talk about the JWG not having entries on a lot of stuff. This would be corrected next season as it returns to being a big book of everything, but dosen’t completely contridct this as Timephoon! shows there’s stillcgaps.. which i’m fine with. While it knowing EVERYTHING was fine for the original series here, with things being slightly more groudned, it’d just be an obvious plothole if Huey didn’t use it every single time they ran into something and that’d get boring. Instead it’s simply that it dosen’t know everything, and really in the comics at times it didn’t and the triplets found out new things. It knew almost everything mind you, but having some gaps for dramatic tnesion is fine with me and Seasons 2 and 3 decided on that instead of just having it being a scouting manual which wa sfor the best. And even by later in the season hit has guides to getting a small buisness loan, so they already course corrected.

So everything’s wrapped up and while Magica berates Lena for disobeying her.. Beakly interputps, thankfully not seeing magica and admits she was wrong and invites Lena for pancakes, even taking a crack about if their actually pancakes or english muffins with syrup, which sounds like my own living hell, in stride, having clearly grown. And Lena explains to Magica that this was the better approach: now she’s got the in theyw anted, and is above suspcison for now. Still not so much that an obvious act won’t be detected but enough that she dosen’t ahve to work actively around her anymore. Magica scoffs.. and while part of it is probably rage.. part of it is deep down both of them know she did it out of defiance.. and only Lena knows that she did it for the right reasons... she just dosen’t get why. She probably justifies it as playing the long game.. but deep down she knows something’s changing about her.. and she’s not sure if that’s a godo thing or not.

Final Thoughts: This episode is as you can tell a mixed bag. It’s 2/3 of a good episode, with the Lena plot, my issues aside, being excellent and the Terra-Firmian plot likewise fun, even if Huey can get grating the payoff is worth it, and the jokes are really high quality. It’s just bogged down by that fucking launchpad plot that just crushed my soul in it’s palms every time it came back. I went on at length why i hated that one but boy oh boy was the hate of that subplot warranted and I stand by calling it the worst plot of the series. It is: it’s not funny, it makes no goddamn sense, and it drags down what’s otherwise a pretty solid epsiode.

Next Time on Lena: Jaws the shark, lurking in the dark, in the depths of the bin one day of a lark decides to get rowdy, get real violent takes a vacay out to Duckburg er.. Island.. also Scrooge faces his greatest Nemesis.. a PR Tour to clean up his image after an unfortunate giant Beanstalk Incident. Be there and be hip to be square.

Next Time on This Blog: I Tackle a DCOM for the first time for another commissioned review as we take a look at racisim, specifically Apartheid and breaking indoctrination, with The Color of Friendship. See you next Rainbow.

#ducktales #ducktales 2017 #lena sabrewing #webby vanderquack #weblena #bentina beakly #launchpad mcquack #huey duck #louie duck #dewey duck #terror of the terra-firmians!#disney channel #disney xd #disney plus #disney #disney ducks #comissions

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the-river-person · 3 years

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I’m going to have to make a list of these eventually. But know that the world in “The Alleyway” is now considered "open for use" or “Community Shared” without the need to request permission from the creator (me) though I’d like to be tagged and credited still. Name of Au: WarrenTale Creator: the-river-person Date of Appearance: Aug 1st, 2021 Universe: WarrenTale is a Universe where Monsters and Humans live freely together within the four major cities of the Claustra Alliance. The Alliance is ruled over by an Emperor who mostly allows the city officials or rulers to each do as they see fit. Citizens are not allowed to leave the confines of the cities, which are large enough to be mostly comfortable for a lot of people, except by special rail cars which carry people to the other cities. The reason for this confinement is the Corruption. A supposed poison or infection that covers the land and deadens it, rendering it blackened or grey, and everything on it that is infected. The official reports state that the Corruption originated during the Human and Monster War and that in order to survive, Humans and Monsters formed an emergency peace treaty and created the cities with magic and technology, thus diverging WarrenTale from the main course of events of Undertale. Each city is supposed to corespond to one of the original Game’s main areas. Vandfald, the only named city thus far, is based on the Waterfall Area and features a city of colossal towers that carry layers of open-air streets and numerous districts. This cluster of towers stands in a deep gorge whose depths cannot be seen from above. Water is pumped in from below and put to use all over the city to generate power, the canals then dump it back down into the gorge via massive waterfalls. The city’s drinking and bathing water is pumped in specially to prevent any Corruption. There is still technology in this world, but its either primitive stuff or very very advanced. Little of the stuff we’d recognize remains unless its scavenged from outside the Cities and repaired to be sold by illegal merchants. The Warren is a set of twisted labyrinthine streets that are home to vagrants and vagabonds, shady dealers, persecuted minorities, criminals of various kinds, and pretty much most outcasts from the Cities. They are built to resemble the streets and styles of all four of the Cities, but are actually quite far away from all of them. Technology and Magic as old as the War was scavenged, rebuilt, and used to make numerous Gateways and Posterns that lead into the Four Cities in various locations. In the event of an incursion, these gateways can be shut down to cut off access. Denizens of the Warren see themselves as apart from the Cities and the Emperor’s rule, though not everyone sees themselves as a rebellion. Characters: Frisk: A Gender Neutral child of about twelve years of age who lives with the Dreemurr Family after having been adopted through the system at a young age (a deeply traumatic experience). Though the Dreemurrs are not cruel people and would never try to hurt anyone, they are not the most ideal parents and can sometimes be both neglectful and controlling. Madame Toriel: A charming woman, but somewhat overzealous about what she terms “climbing the social ladder”. This entails hosting large dinners and galas with all sorts of important people, especially Minister Sans. The Minister is of particular importance to her because he is Minister of Finance and Commerce for the City of Vandfald, and the Dreemurr family owns a budding trading company. She may be sweet on Sans, but its difficult to tell whether that’s real or merely a product of her ambitions. Though she sees herself as benevolent and kindly, she likes to have things her way and can aggressively micromanage everyone around her until she’s satisfied. Azzy: The child of Madame Toriel and Master Asgore. Suffers from neglect and is often ill and anxious. Whenever he’s well enough he likes to spend time out in the extensive gardens around the family house and sometimes to visit the city gardens. His favorite flower is a kind of golden blossom whose name he hasn’t found out yet, though he’s memorized the names of every other flower in the city. Master Asgore: A monster consumed by his desire for wealth, left a shell of himself. He is always working, always trying to make better trades, make new profitable deals. Driven by the need to provide a “better” life for his family, he is neglectful and absent. Though others might think him friendly and charming, he is solely focused on rising up in the world. Always rising, but never really stopping, never finding that enough is enough, and slowly losing the very things he’s certain that he’s caring for. Doggo: Surprisingly he’s an old University Professor, fired for teaching his students about dissenting views against the Alliance, the Cities, and the Emperor, about pre war history and philosophy, and about a number of things the city officials decided were “deliberately harmful to the prospects of students by taking up their time with unnecessary and outdated or irrelevant studies.” (In other words, they didn’t want to say he was a threat to the state so he got the boot). He still keeps in contact with several of his students, one of whom is Minister Sans of Vandfald City. Doggo now lives in the Warrens, and has printed several books with his knowledge (all banned by the Emperor after copies were found and confiscated by city law enforcement) under various pseudonyms. Minister Sans: For all appearances he is a respectable and upstanding Citizen. He oversees trade and business for Vandfald as well as setting the government’s budgets. However he is also well aware of the Warrens and is actively engaged in a growing resistance to the control of the Emperor. He is not publicly known to have a brother, but he cares very deeply for Papyrus and ensures that he always has more than enough to live on despite the fact they rarely see one another anymore. Papyrus: The Doorkeeper. Papyrus is rarely seen in person, spending almost all of his time in his home, hidden deep in the lower levels of Vandfald City’s towers. He has control of the mechanisms that maintain the entrances to the Warrens. Individual gates and doors can be shut by someone nearby in the Warrens. But this lonely skeleton holds the key to shut or open any or all of them whenever he wishes. How he ended up in charge of this is unknown, but he’s made it his life’s work to keep the Warrens free and the refugees living there safe. He spends so much time alone, watching the gateways, that it consumes him, driving him half mad. Sitting in the dark and staring at screens from ancient computers as old as the War of Humans and Monsters. Sans visits rarely, and ensures he has money and food and anything else he wants. Aron and Catty: Two married monsters who live in the Warrens. Traders and merchants, they sell illegally scavenged and repaired technology from the badlands beyond the city. Aron is a very handsome aquatic monster with muscular features and comes off as a used car salesman. He is deeply devoted to his Cat Monster wife and would do anything for her. She is only slightly resentful towards their situation, having come from a moderately wealthy family, but loves him just as fiercely. Despite this, they quarrel constantly, and she whacks him with whatever is on hand (really he doesn’t mind this and they both know it. It’s more for the show of getting their frustrations out.) Chilldrake: Child of the Drake family, a family who runs a restaurant in Vandfald City. His friends include Azzy, Frisk, a mouse (whose father works in the restaurant), and a monster named Suzy. Can I use this AU in my story/comic/video/art?: Yes. I only ask that I be tagged and credited! So I can come see what cool stuff you did! Can I write a story/comic or make a video for this AU that tells its story?: Sure. I don’t have a story for it. I might come back and do a one shot or two. But all stories for it are equally canon. Is Mistral Sans an official part of this AU?: He is not. Mistral visited, and ended up giving advice to Frisk and Azzy. But he won’t interfere with events here, and has told them not to mention him to anyone. He might offer them one or two pieces of advice if they really need it, but its likely he’ll be long gone before the story draws to its close. He’s just here to see what this Universe is like. Will you answer questions about this AU’s characters, places, and history?: Sure. I’d love to. Just send an ask and if I have an answer, I’ll let you know. Or if I never thought about that, I can probably figure it out in order to answer.

#WarrenTale #mistral sans #the alleyway #undertale au #community shared undertale au #alternate universe #feel free to reblog #reblogs welcome #undertale #undertale one shot #community shared au

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darkficsyouneveraskedfor · 4 years

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Omertà👄8

Warnings: noncon sexual acts; tags to be added throughout series

This is dark!Bucky and dark! Loki and explicit. Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Warnings have been given. DO NOT PROCEED if these matters upset you.

Summary: Your father was a bookie and taught you everything you know about numbers. After his death, you were taken on as a bookkeeper for Loki Laufeyson, resident crime boss in Manhattan. But can you keep your place in the background when a man from Brooklyn threatens to drag you to the forefront?

Note: Okay, a little more of plot chapter which I know y’all are reading for a little less than plot, hehe, but enjoy!

Hope you enjoy it. Thank you. Love you guys!

As always, if you can, please leave some feedback, like and reblog <3

It was an odd sensation. Being numb and yet entirely worn. You could feel nothing and everything at the same time. Loki was in and out of the office, your little cell behind the antique shop.

You stared at the numbers but couldn’t read them. Your mouth tasted of bile. Your thoughts were a blur of the previous night and that morning. The humiliation seared deep inside of you.

Loki didn’t return as the clock ticked. You checked your phone time and time again. No messages, no change. You’d usually be gone by then but you lingered. You were too afraid to leave, nervous to rile the man. He had shown the depths of his depravity and you had no urge to push them lower.

When the door did finally budge, you were further frazzled by the figure who greeted you. Thor strutted in, the door ajar behind him as he neared your desk. You did your best not to cower. It was best not to encourage this man; best not to show him how terrifying he truly was. To him, that was permission.

“Well,” He tapped two fingers on your desk. “My brother has sent me to fetch you.”

“Fetch me?” You frowned and rolled your pencil across the ledger. “Where is he?”

He smirked and grabbed the pencil from beneath your fingertips. He tossed it away and closed the ledger, nearly crushed your hand as he did. He pushed the book towards you and you caught it before it could topple in your lap.

“He said to bring your numbers,” Thor smirked. “And that if you insist on wasting his time, he would be inclined to remind you of your place…” His blue eyes flitted down to your turtleneck and focused on the fabric stretched across your chest. “Again.”

You stood almost immediately, embarrassed that you were so quick to dissemble. You bent and retrieved your purse from beneath the desk and slid your phone off the desk along with the ledger. You held it to your chest and nodded at the muscular lump.

“Well,” You said sharply and swallowed your nerves. “I would be inclined to let him know if it were you wasting his time.”

“Oh ho,” He grabbed your arm and dragged you around the desk. “You are a sharp one.” He loomed over you. “I see why he would rather that mouth for better uses.”

“Get off of me,” You smacked his chest and he chuckled at what was little more than a poke to him. “I know Loki enough to know he is not one for sharing. That he made very clear, didn’t he?”

Thor squinted and you saw the flicker in his eyes, followed by resignation. He turned and hauled you through the open door, your heels scratching against the aged hardwood.

“Perhaps when he tires of you, he won’t be so selfish,” Thor snarled. “Girls like you…”

“Men like you,” You snapped as you ignored Lopez’ gaze, “All the same. Just as stupid as the next one.”

He spun you so that your back hit the shop door and he closed in on you in an instant. He grabbed your throat and pinned you to the glass. Lopez looked away and pretended to be busy with his closing duties.

“He wouldn’t mind a black-eye so much,” Thor growled. “He doesn’t need to look at your face, does he? Not when--”

“Ugh, stop,” You squirmed in his grasp. “I’ll… be quiet.”

He hesitated and let you go. He checked his watch and sighed.

“If I hadn’t already wasted so much time,” He mulled. “Come on, then.”

You turned and opened the door. He followed with a tap on your ass and pulled the door closed behind him with a jingle. He directed you down the sidewalk to the garish sports car with butterfly doors and ordered you inside. Say what you would of Loki, his simplicity was almost admirable compared to others of his ilk.

The ride was silent as you picked at the corner of the ledger and wondered, rather dreaded, what was in store for you. You were surprised, however, as Thor drew up before Diablo’s underground den. You glanced at the shadowed stairway which led down to the slatted door and back at your escort.

“What--”

He gave you a pointed look as he got out and shook his head. You struggled with the door and he came around to open it for you. As you stepped out, he seized you by the arm again and ushered you across the street, paying little heed to the cars that blared their horns at him.

You stumbled down the stairs beside him, nearly toppling over as you were crammed in the tight space beside him. He stopped at the bottom and thumped once. The door shook against his strength and the slat opened almost immediately as rounded eyes peered out.

The doorman barely righted himself and uttered the code word. Thor yawned his response and the door was quickly pulled back on its hinges. You were shoved through first and another man stood further along the corridor. He pushed himself away from the wall and glanced at Thor who nudge you forward.

You followed the second man and Thor growled beside you. You entered the party room, barren but for a few suited men playing at cards are fiddling with pistols. You crossed to the red door hidden around the corner where Diablo did his business and another knock was placed on its face.

The man opened the door and beckoned you through. Thor remained without as you entered and the red door shut behind you. Loki sat in a leather chair as Diablo reclined on a matching chaise in an embroidered robe. His silver-lined hair shone in the light of glass-shaded lamps as he chewed on an unlit cigar and Loki held a snifter of scotch.

“Ah, finally,” Loki mused as he snapped his fingers at you. He pointed to a stiff back chair just a few feet from his own.

You nodded and took the seat without question. Loki’s gaze lingered on you and his lips slanted. You knew what he was thinking of; the very thing you were trying not to think of. He returned his attention to the other man and rubbed his chin.

Diablo took the cigar from his mouth, twirled it, then inhaled its scent. He sat up and tucked it in the chest pocket of his robe. He reached to a small notebook on the low glass table between him and Loki. He tossed it into your lap and you barely caught it with the ledger resting there.

“All the info is in there, I’m certain the bookie’s daughter can figure it out,” Diablo huffed.

Confused, you resisted the urge to peek inside the book.

“Surely she will have it looked over before we come to our final terms,” Loki waved his fingers at you. “It might take some time so I think another scotch might be in order.”

“Well, if you don’t mind,” Diablo stood and gripped his lower back. “I actually have a prior engagement for the next, oh, I don’t know, hour.” He grinned and stretched his arms. “Doesn’t take as long as it used to.” He winked a Loki who gave a slight twitch of his lips. “You have my office for the duration to look it over. I expect a decision tonight. This offer will not be repeated.”

“Of course,” Loki stood as Diablo did. “She is efficient enough.”

“Let’s hope,” Diablo narrowed his eyes at you before he headed for the door. “For both our sakes.”

He left through the red door and you looked to Loki with a confused grimace. He chuckled and searched around for the decanter of scotch and refilled his glass. He took another and doffed it towards you. You shook your head.

“Care to explain what this is?” You opened the notebook and glossed over the margins of numbers.

“A new business venture,” Loki sipped between words. “You know, I figured I’d move on from this whole Barnes debacle. A draw is better than a loss, I suppose.”

“Mhmm,” You continued to flip through the pages. “Buying a bounty is one thing, but Diablo… he likes to hide his true colours by calling my father a shill but my father only ever dealt with men like him. Men he could read.”

“Oh, but the bounty did prove to be ever so profitable,” Loki came up and gasped the back of your chair just beside your head. “You just look this over like a good little mouse.”

You stopped and let the book splay open on your lap. You looked up at him in disbelief.

“It’s a fucking casino,” You sputtered. “Are you crazy?”

“Half, well, forty-nine percent,” He said. “Diablo would retain the majority.”

“Oh, forty-nine percent of any loss is better than fifty,” You rolled your eyes. “So you would rather trade in a comfortable stability for a foolish gamble? You know, casinos rarely draw in as much money as they would suggest.”

“Atlantic city is approaching another renaissance and it’s much closer than Vegas,” Loki moved behind you and ran his fingers over your hair. “Now, you will look at those numbers and tell me what I am looking at.” He stepped around the chair entirely and strode along the leather chaise. “Forget your history books and give me the figures.”

You shook your head and lifted the notebook as you opened the ledger beneath. You flipped back to the first page and sighed. It didn’t matter how the numbers looked at that moment, a casino rarely held a pattern and never kept a promise. He should have known this or at least his natural caution should have girded him against it. Running drugs was easy enough, maintaining a gambling house was a recipe for disaster.

As you kept on, making notes of revenue you could draw from to augment possible losses and tracking those already in the books, you grew further agitated. Despite your focus, you couldn’t ignore Loki. He’d sit then stand again, get close, touch your shoulder or your back, let out a long breath as he stood over you.

When at last you’d done as much as you could, you sat straight and your back sang. Your neck was still tender from Bucky’s love bites and your muscles ached worse than before. You tried not to think of him as you closed both books and set them on the low table.

“What I can say now is that yes, there is potential in the casino, but is it worth bartering everything you have?” You said carefully. “That is a gamble on its own and the irony of that isn’t amusing enough for me to advise you to take this deal.”

Loki arched a brow and set down his empty glass.

“A likely loss?” He wondered.

“Possible loss,” You said. “And you’re right, there is a boom nearing but booms are always followed by crashes. If you were to take this deal, I would suggest you not see it as a permanent asset. Do what you can on the upswing but bail before the decline.”

“Mmm,” He pushed his bottom lip under his teeth and thought. “What is this potential?”

“Potential profit; millions.” You said evenly. “Potential loss; even more than that.”

“Ahh,” He sat and rubbed his knees. “But considering our already split income and this issue with docks, I would need some additional revenue soon.”

“True enough, and there are opportunities outside of Atlantic City,” You advised. “Hell, I would suggest the tracks before I sent you to the tables.”

“Tracks are small time,” Loki sneered. “How far did your father make it, eh?”

“He was… consistent,” You shrugged. “You asked for the numbers and my advice, and I’ve given you those. Either way, you risk a loss, even if it is only half… sorry, less than half.”

He traced a fingertip along his cheek and his face tensed as he thought.

“Thor has offered half of the buy-in,” Loki intoned. “He has a few casinos in London. He has made the best of them.”

“So you would own half of half?” You asked.

“A loan,” Loki insisted. “He is my brother and I have helped him before. As I see it, it is family business.”

“And he has consented to this loan?”

“My brother loves London,” Loki explained. “He will soon tire of being in New York because he is not the big boss. When my father handed over the business, Thor thought he won. He thought London was jewel in the crown, and I think, deep down, he knew he could never make it in New York.”

“It is your money, your business,” You said. “I just run the numbers.”

“Oh, darling,” His face softened and he grinned. “You will be doing much more than that. Atlantic City will be full of opportunities.”

You looked down and took a deep breath. You were embarrassed and angry but this was not the place. Not the time.

“Away from that jackass,” Loki stood and hooked a thumb through his belt. He reached to press two fingers beneath your chin and lifted your head. “We will have all the time in the world to rebuild the trust you broke.”

287 notes · View notes

annamiasworld · 4 years

Text

Detain the Dangerous [Gravity Falls: Ford x Bill]

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Note: This is my first fanfic ever which I publish here on tumblr so I would be indiscribably happy if you could leave some feedback in the comments. Plus this is the first time I wrote about Gravity Falls so if you notice any mistakes concerning the timeline of the story etc. point that out if possible. Also goes for typos because english is not my first language. This fic was inspired by the song “Dangerous” from David Guetta by the way. Other than that I hope you enjoy reading this!

Summary: This work is about Ford and Bill during Fords researcher period in Gravity Falls. It’s pretty much Fords thoughts without a real plot and takes place before he realizes that Bill bertayed him.

Warnings: None

Requested by: @zirandem

Word Count: 1,5k

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When Ford woke up the first thing he saw was an overthrown cup of coffee and a brown viscous substance soaking itself into his paperwork.

“Oh not again” he mumbled still sleepy and stretched his back. That action caused more pain then it actually should and the noises his body made sounded anything else then healthy. He still got up – probably a bit too fast because his head immediately began to throb and for a few seconds everything went dark in front of his eyes. Ford rammed his fingernails into the wooden table he was sitting at a few moments ago until he got his orientation back.

A heavy sigh left his lips. He hadn’t slept through for more than a week now because of his project. It simply took up all of his time and energy. He knew that he could never handle all of this on his own and that’s also why he was so thankful for the help he got from Fiddleford. And of course not only from him…

Fords eyes quickly skimmed the room while he asked himself if he’s being watched. An uncomfortable feeling rushed through his bones, making him shiver. He definitely needed another cup of coffee.

On his way to the kitchen he turned on all of the lights. He wasn’t paranoid or anything but lately he felt like something changed. It felt like the air was full of electricity and something heavy and dark built itself up becoming more and more dangerous every day. For most of the people this description would seem weird but Ford was sure that he was right. Still he kept these thoughts to himself because he knew others wouldn’t understand. Except maybe…

“Hey Sixer!” a familiar voice called. While Ford had begun to make himself coffee Bill Cipher casually appeared behind him floating just above the table.

“Morning Bill” Ford said. He had expected that his friend would turn up but he also knew what that meant. It meant going back to work again and right now he really wasn’t in the mood. He just woke up feeling horribly tired so all he would like to ask for was one single morning where he could sit at the kitchen table eating a proper breakfast. But he knew of course that this wasn’t possible. Not before their project was finished.

“I hope you were diligent in my absence.” The triangle grabbed Fords coffee and took a long sip.

“Of course I was”

“Well then I suppose you wouldn’t mind me taking a look at your notes”

Ford took a deep breath and prepared himself for letting Bill inside his mind. After that his memories went blank.

He found himself sitting in front of his table again with Bill next to him. His friend was in a good mood as always when he pointed to Fords work.

“This was really impressive! The additional notes about the invisible wizard could be very helpful for building the portal!”

Ford smirked. Bill always knew how he could get him. They just shared the same passion when talking about supernatural stuff. And secretly Ford was extremely glad whenever Bill praised him.

“Well for sure not as useful as the materials he kept in his shack!”

“You have a point there” Bill laughed.

“I wonder if there is a way to see the invisible wizard. I could try to reinforce my glasses with…”

But Bill interrupted him. “Listen, I know that there is still a lot to discover but let’s focus on the important thing first. The invisible wizard won’t run of. I mean it’s impossible since we locked him in that closet.”

Now it was Fords turn to laugh. “Well then what’s the order of the day, muse?”

Bill ensured him that he would wait at the car until Ford got himself ready and disappeared. Ford hurried to the bathroom, not wanting to make Bill wait too long. With a glance into the mirror he saw that he looked just as horrible as he felt. But he had no time to wallow in self-pity. Bill was waiting.

While brushing his teeth the strange feeling he had felt during the last few days returned. Since he met Bill a lot had changed. Through him he discovered that there are creatures at places he would have never found on his own. Also the portal would be a huge step to finally understand how all of the dimensions worked together. And once he had summed up all the facts he could make the information available for everyone. Nobody would dare to call him crazy anymore when he had proofs for everything. To the contrary he would be the greatest scientist of all time.

But suddenly a question popped up in his mind. What is Bills benefit? He tried to get rid of the thought, explaining to himself that Bill was a muse or he probably had to serve somebody like a genie, that there was a logical explanation but he still couldn’t stop thinking about it.

“Well I could just ask him, right? We are friends after all.” he muttered while walking down the stairs.

As soon as he sat into the car seat he gathered his courage. Why was it so hard for him to do this? It was just a simple question, right?

“Listen Bill, I’d like to ask you something…”

The triangle appeared on the passenger seat the moment Ford started talking, giving him an interested look.

“Spit it out already Sixer. What is it?”

He swallowed. “I know that you only want to help me… but… why? What’s in this for you?”

There was an oppressive silence and Bill examined him carefully. After what seemed like minutes to Ford he finally said, “Do you doubt me Stanford?”

Fords eyes opened wide. His question had exactly the impact he didn’t want to attain.

“No, no, no, no, no! I was just… I only wanted… I thought maybe…” he stuttered awkwardly.

Bill dropped his gaze and sighed.

“It’s okay. I knew that you would ask this at some point. But you still hurt me.”

“This wasn’t my intention. I’m sorry Bill.”

“I know. Yet I owe you an answer.”

Ford waited silently while Bill tried to search for the right words.

“Of course I’m doing this because you are my friend. I see an enormous potential in you. But you are right. There are other reasons too. I’m trying to show you as much as possible but there are dangers in which I don’t want to put you. Sometimes it’s better not to know everything, Ford.”

Ford felt really ashamed. Why did he always have to question everything? He was never the guy who had plenty of friends and now he risked to lose his best one.

“I’m really sorry, Bill. Please forgive me.” Ford apologized again.

“It’s okay, Sixer. Let’s just… forget this conversation.”

Ford nodded relieved. He would never dare to mention this topic again.

“Are we ready to pay the Geodites a visit?” Bill changed the topic skilfully.

“We totally are.”

The second time Bill left Fords mind they were at a different place again. The triangle had lead them to a mine at the foot of a mountain. There were debris all around the entry and it didn’t look very stable but he still walked towards it. Bill told him that the Geodites are simply living geodes. They are hard to destroy and could be a good binder for some immobile parts of the portal. If they managed to catch some of course.

He wondered how he could explain the function of the new commodity to Fiddleford. His former college friend was a good soul and a fabulous engineer but Bill has warned Ford to tell him only the bare necessities. Unfortunately Fiddleford tended to be instable concerning his mental health so he could easily get nervous when Ford brought some new materials he found with Bill.

It didn’t feel right to keep a secret from his colleague but Ford had no choice. Maybe when they had reached their goal, when they finished the portal and activated it, when he understood more and visited other dimensions he could inaugurate Fiddleford. He would surely be glad that he was part of this project when he only saw all of the profits they could draw from other dimensions.

Ford knew that something about this wasn’t right. He was out here in the wild, discovering things that aren’t meant to be discovered. It almost felt like an addiction. A possibly deadly dangerous one. But he wasn’t alone. Bill would protect him, right? That’s at least what he hoped. That’s at least what he promised him.

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lia-jones · 4 years

Text

Growing Pains - Chapter Twenty Two - The Jones Family

First and foremost, thank you to my friend @muart0113 for the amazing art to illustrate my work. This girl is incredibly talented and makes my heart sing with joy with her every work. I love you, girl! Now, scroll down for the chapter...

It was a fantastic day. I had Victor by my side, and we were on our way to my parents’ house. I had received the highest praise from the University. Professor Williamson, that was so crude when I was defending my thesis, showered me with compliments right after, complimenting my hard work but, most of all, my vision. I had completed a milestone towards my healing, and with flying colors. It did feel as if I had healed, like the darkness in me had faded away, maybe for good, and I had found myself again. Better, I had found an improved version of myself.

I had managed to get my life back on track. I had found love and success. And to top it all off, Victor was in a very good mood as we drove in the sun, the Atlantic Ocean as our background.

“I may have to give you a raise.” He said, touching my leg. “When the other companies find out about you, I’ll have to fight for you tooth and nail.”

“Please.” I made a flat voice, but couldn’t avoid the grin. “If I’m here, it’s because of your help. Can you imagine what would have happened if you let me quit like I intended to? I might not be here now, celebrating with you.”

“I didn’t stop you from quitting, I teased you to stay.” He corrected. “You could have quit anytime, give it all up, but you didn’t. You faced the challenge.”

“Don’t think I don’t know you cherry-picked the clients I would work with.” I looked at him from the corner of my eye.

“Of course I did. But it wasn’t all for your benefit.” Victor looked at me with earnest eyes. “I merely saw a good opportunity, and yes, cherry-picked the people I enjoy and trust the most to profit from it. It wasn’t all because of you, it was also because of them. Mr. Mills’ business, for example, benefited immensely collaborating with both Guy and Xavier, increasing his sales. Xavier got excellent quality grapes at a very competitive price, and Guy now has superior fresh ingredients for his restaurant. Everything your study promises. A win-win-win situation.”

I couldn’t help but smile, not because of the praise, but because my “utopic reasoning”, as some teachers put it, made some sense after all. And the practical applications of it, that allowed these companies to grow, was the final proof.

“And I got you.” My hand leaving the wheel and reaching for his. “And you were my greatest support, Victor. If it wasn’t for you-“

“Just take the praise.” Victor sounded annoyed, but I could see the soft smile on his face. “I will not repeat myself. Just say Thank you, handsome.”

“You enjoy your new nickname, is it?”

“I don’t hate it.” Victor feigned aloofness.

“Thank you, handsome.” I offered, just letting the happiness wash over me.

A comfortable silence filled the car, and all we could hear was the hum of the motor running, and the seagulls outside, jumping on the warm sand of the beach beside us. It suddenly dawned on me where we were driving to. It was Victor’s first real interaction with my family. I started feeling nervous again, my happiness thrown to the background, as an uneasy feeling settled in my stomach again.

“Are you nervous?” Victor asked, reading into me.

“Why should I be?” I answered nonchalantly.

“I can tell you are worried.” He said, matter-of-factly. “Are you afraid they won’t like me?”

“I’m afraid you won’t like them.” I confessed. “I mean, you’ve seen them. They are caring and supportive and I love them to death, but they’re also overly expressive, and noisy… Nothing you are used to.”

“How judgmental do you think I am?” Victor frowned at me.

I didn’t answer, afraid to start an argument. Victor could be judgmental sometimes. Not that he did it on purpose, or with a mean intention, but he was quick to draw conclusions about people. It was how he navigated through the world. He categorized.

“Perhaps I’m a little nervous as well.” He offered, almost in a whisper.

“Don’t be. You made time in your very busy schedule and took a twelve-hour flight to come and see my presentation. When asked, you spoke highly of me. They already like you.” I chuckled, relieved to see the tone of the conversation shifting to a more amicable one.

“After what you’ve been through…” He hesitated for a moment. “I want them to see I’m not like that.” He confessed.

I turned the car to the side of the road, pulling the brake. Unfastening my seatbelt, I turned to Victor.

“You’re nothing like him.” I said, stroking his cheek. “Nothing at all. They will see that too, I’m sure.”

Victor ran his fingers through my curls, taking the back of my head and pulling me towards him for a kiss. I wrapped my arms around his neck, trying to get as close as I could, despite the parking brake and gear shift between us.

“I’ve been wanting to kiss you since you left Loveland.” Victor whispered, his forehead touching mine.

I parked the car in front of my mother’s villa. My family had just arrived, and everyone was working to get lunch started.

“Welcome, Victor.” My mom greeted him. “Andrea will show you around while we set the table.”

“Do you need help?” Victor offered.

“No, not necessary. We have plenty of people to help. But it’s very nice of you to offer.” My mom smiled.

As we stepped inside, we were greeted by Lady, my black and white Border Collie. Well, I was greeted. Seeing Victor, a stranger in her pack’s territory, Lady positioned herself in front of him, taking a defensive stance, growling at him. Victor instinctively took a step back.

“Lady!” I called, trying to break her attack focus. “Sit! Calm down.”

Lady immediately sat, waiting for orders. I hugged Victor, and patted him on the chest. Lady was watching my behavior closely.

“He’s a friend, see?” I told her, and then turned to Victor. “You need to show her you are friendly.”

Victor gave me a confused frown but obliged, hugging me back and pecking me on the forehead. Lady was apparently pleased with the gesture, going to Victor and nudging his hand. He hesitated, but after a moment he started petting her. Her tailed wagged happily.

“Good job defending your family.” He offered, kneeling to let her come closer. “Good girl.”

I took Victor to the back of the house, where the greenhouse was located, connected to a small bright study and the kitchen. My mother’s house wasn’t as luxurious as Victor’s, but was well located near the beach, and with good access to the city, and it was incredibly spacious. We arrived at the study, where my piano was, by the door of the greenhouse, which was open at that time.

“What’s this smell?” He asked, breathing deeply the aroma.

“Lavender and lemon. From the greenhouse.”

Victor nodded in approval and then walked to my piano, looking at one of the pictures on top of the varnished wood, me playing that same piano when I was 7 years old.

“Is this you?” He asked, observing it carefully. “You were cute.”

“I still am.” I pretended to be offended.

“Debatable.” He gave me a mischievous smile, and I could tell he was relaxing a little bit.

“There you are.” I heard my mother, coming from the kitchen. “Lunch is on the table, come eat. Victor, there’s a bathroom near the kitchen, if you want to use it. Come, I’ll show you.”

Victor thanked my mother and followed her inside. I was about to go inside, when Cristina stopped me.

“Is he your boyfriend?” She whispered in Portuguese, so my father and Victor wouldn’t understand us. “He’s hot!”

“Shhhhh!” I urged her to keep quiet. “I haven’t told anyone yet. Did my mother say anything in the car?”

“No, she just commented on how nice he is. Josh is very suspicious though, he acted moody all the way here.”

“Oh God…” I whined, hiding my face with my hands.

“Hey! Snap out of it!” Cristina slapped my arm playfully. “Are you happy?” She asked, giving me a warm smile.

“Yes.” I smiled back. “Very happy.”

“Good. I got your back if things get chaotic. Don’t worry.”

“Are you ladies going to have lunch with us or are you watching your figure?” My father teased from inside.

As I entered, Victor was already sitting at the table, engaged in conversation with my brother, trying hard to blend in. There was a place next to him saved for me. My mother cooked a feast, from the usual codfish to the typical fava beans with pork. When everyone was happily eating, I tried to break the news.

“So…”

“Victor, have you tried Portuguese food before?” My father asked, making conversation.

“Yes, on one occasion.” He kept it vague, not wanting to tell them I had been cooking for him. “I tried the codfish, but not this recipe. It had cream, I think. I never had the fava beans before. They’re delicious.”

“And the wine, do you like it?” My father asked again. “It’s from a winery I sometimes visit, in Alentejo. They make the finest wines.”

“Yes, Andrea told me you are an oenologist. Actually, one of our clients seems to know you. Xavier Breton, do you know him? He’s a big fan of your work.” Victor was a far cry from the moody CEO everybody was used to. If any of his employees could see him relaxed and making conversation like this, they wouldn’t believe it.

“I heard of him. He owns a winery near Paris.” My father turned to me. “How come you never told me you were working with Xavier Breton? I could’ve given you some pointers.”

“Clearly she didn’t need them, given her results. And on that subject, we should make a toast.” My mother said, raising her glass. “To our Andy and a job well done!”

We all raised our glasses and drank. I still had the glass on my lips when I heard my mom again. She spoke in a deviously calm fashion, with a smile on her lips.

“Now Victor, do tell me, what are your intentions with my daughter?”

I somehow managed to keep myself from spraying the wine I had in mouth all over the table, but I still choked a little. Victor patted me on the back, his cheeks pink, as I tried to catch my breath. Nice going, Mom.

“You had to wait for her to drink to ask, didn’t you? Couldn’t avoid the scene.” My brother spoke quietly, his head low, as he focused on his food.

“Well, I may not be the typical meddling Portuguese mother, but I do feel entitled to some drama.” My mother joked. “So, Victor, you were saying?”

“The very best.” Victor’s voice came out a little higher than usual, so he cleared his throat. “I care very much for Andrea.”

“And how long have you been dating?” Cristina asked with dreamy eyes. You’re supposed to make them stop, not ask any more questions, Cristina.

“For about three months.” Victor said, reaching for his wine. He seemed cool and casual, but his jugular pulsing fast and hard told otherwise.

“Oh, so it’s recent. That’s why Andrea kept quiet all this time.” My mother smiled at me.

My father looked at us like we were speaking Klingon, surprised at the turn of events. He was a very bright man, but was also a bit naïve sometimes, completely oblivious to subtleties. An innocent soul, as my mother called him. Suddenly, he became somber.

“Son, I do hope you know what you are doing. Our Andy has been through enough.” He declared. I could just dig a whole and die there. My father just called Victor Lee, Loveland’s mogul and CEO of LFG, son.

“I do.” Victor nodded, looking at me. “I plan on making your daughter very happy.”

“Do you know what I did to the last guy that hurt my sister?” Joshua suddenly asked, throwing Victor a threatening look.

“Josh!” Me and Cristina reprimanded in unison. Victor sipped his wine like nothing had happened.

“I do. I would’ve done the same thing. Except, I wouldn’t get caught.” He answered, matter-of-factly.

“So you know.” My mother concluded, a surprised smile on her face. Victor nodded. “Don’t worry, Josh. I don’t think he’s like Daniel at all.” She eyed Victor, like she was analyzing him. “Victor seems to be from a different breed altogether. He seems to be a man of honor.”

“He is.” I said, smiling at Victor, giggling internally when I saw him blush again.

“Well, my mother is the best judge of character at this table, perhaps of the entire city. If she approves, I do too.” Josh extended his hand for Victor to shake. Victor took it, torn between shyness and satisfaction.

“Thank you.” He answered, looking more relaxed.

“You can stop blushing now, Andrea. The awkward part is over.” My mother teased, and that made my cheeks burn even more. “Tell me, Victor, for how long do we have you in Portugal?”

“I’ll have to leave tomorrow. I have a rather busy schedule, I can’t take any more personal days.”

“Lovely. Since Victor took these days to come and support you, it’s only fair that you make the best of his time and take him to visit Lisbon, don’t you think?” My mother turned to me, smiling suggestively.

“Actually, if you don’t mind, I would like to steal your daughter for the evening. I have something planned for us.”

My mother and Cristina exchanged glances, smiling.

“I don’t see why not.” My father chimed in. “You surely have better things to do than to entertain us old farts.”

“What do you think?” Victor turned to me.

“Wait, I do actually have a say in the matter?” I joked. “I would love to.” I smiled at Victor, caressing his knee under the table. Victor’s hand left his knife, holding my hand instead.

“Next time you two come here, we have to schedule a night out.” My brother chimed in, as Cristina nodded enthusiastically. “We can go to our old pub, you could watch my band perform, we could even convince Andrea to go on stage and sing and play the piano. She used to sing in our band, you know.”

“Now, that would be something to look forward to.” Victor’s eyes widened, as his interest peaked.

“Well, we can watch your band, but I will certainly not sing. Those days are over.” I warned.

“I’ll convince her to sing, don’t worry.” My brother whispered, winking at Victor.

“No you won’t!” I argued, as everybody started presenting reasons as to why I should sing.

Lisbon was incredibly sunny and warm that afternoon, despite being February. I took Victor to visit Belém and see our famous Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, Belém’s Tower, and the outstanding Padrão dos Descobrimentos. We enjoyed the sun sitting at a table near the riverbank, the Tejo River keeping us company, as we drank coffee and had some pastéis de nata, a delicacy made of puff pastry and a silky custard-like cream.

Victor hummed as he ate his last piece of the confection, taking a sip of his coffee right after.

“You were right, Portugal is a lot warmer than Loveland.” He spoke as he turned towards the river to feel the breeze. He’d already taken off his jacket and tie, keeping only his white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the first two buttons of the collar undone. “Lisbon is a beautiful city.”

“I did ask you if you wanted to stop by your hotel to change.” I raised my eyebrows at Victor. “Are you too hot?”

“I’m fine.” He assured me. “Besides, if we went to my hotel room, we wouldn’t leave at all.” Victor smiled suggestively and got up, taking his cellphone from the table. “Come, let’s take a walk. I need some help digesting all the food that I ate.”

We watched the sunset touch the river as we sat on a park bench, holding hands. Victor was relaxed, happy, soft and I loved this side of him. He leaned on me, his nose brushing mine.

“Now it’s time for your surprise. Come, let’s go to the hotel.”

Victor was staying at the famous Palácio Belmonte, located in Alfama, one of the most fashionable neighborhoods in Lisbon. It was already dark when we arrived, so I spotted the large quantity of fairy lights illuminating the suite’s terrace right away.

“Dinner will be served in 15 minutes, Sir.” A butler came to us. “Would you like to have a drink while you wait?”

“A brandy, please.” Victor answered, fully in CEO mode. “What would you like to drink?” He turned to me, his voice softening.

“Same.” The butler left and we sat at the exquisitely decorated table. The light of the candles gave Victor a dreamy look, and I started imagining myself being held in his strong arms, his mouth tasting my skin. Something inside me, down south, clenched a little.

“I love my surprise, thank you.” I said, trying to take my mind off it.

“This is not your surprise. This is just us having dinner. The surprise is after dinner.”

I spent the entire meal hanging onto the edge of my seat, although playing it extremely cool. We talked about the city, the things he loved the most, my memories of the place. As the waiters were clearing the table, Victor led me to his bedroom.

“Wait here,” He said, as he sat me on the bed.

He returned with a velvet box. Slightly larger than the ones for rings. I opened it. It was a white gold charm bracelet, which already included some charms: a small silver Eiffel Tower, a tiny bottle with sand in it, a snowflake adorned with small crystals and the letter V.

“Victor…” I whispered. It was too much.

“Give me your hand.” He gently took my wrist and secured the bracelet around it, softly touching the charms one by one. “The Eiffel Tower represents our trip to Paris and our first kiss, the sand in the bottle is actually from Dubai…”

“The snowflake represents our first Christmas together, and the V stands for… you?” I finished.

“The V stands for victory, you achieving what you have worked so hard for. The fact that it also stands for Victor is a happy coincidence. But maybe it will remind you of me when you look at it.” He smiled at me.

I wrapped my arms around Victor, and he immediately placed his hands on my waist, bringing his face closer to mine.

“I don’t need a bracelet or a charm to think of you. You’re always on my mind as it is.” I said, brushing my nose against his. “Now… Does the surprise have a part two?” I whispered seductively in his ear, which made Victor take a deep breath.

“What do you have in mind?” His low voice rumbled in his chest.

“I don’t know…” I smiled mischievously at him, my fingers running down his chest. “I have been wanting to get rid of this for a while now.” I said, tugging at his shirt.

To the point as usual, Victor kissed me passionately, as he slowly laid me on his bed.

#Growing Pains - Series #growingpains #mlqc victor #victor x oc #mlqc li zeyan #mlqc fanfic #mister love queens choice #love and producer

7 notes · View notes

s-j-ace · 5 years

Text

The Same Question

Chapter One

Characters: Shuichi Saihara, Ouma Kokichi

Words: 6738

Summary:

After Detective Shuichi Saihara encounters mysterious thief Kokichi Ouma for the first time, a game of cat and mouse ensues as both men ask themselves the same question. Why exactly does the elusive phantom thief do what he does?

Sequel to the events of That’s the Thing About Airplanes and New Plan!

Read on AO3

Kokichi Ouma had always found it strange how he could sit in a room full of people yet feel utterly alone in the universe at the same time.

The thought occurred to him once more as he sat among his crew in a little hole in the wall cafe tucked in the shadows of the city of lights, and it was very much out of character. The scenario Kokichi described to his crew, as they drove away from the Louvre in the beat up looking SUVs they had secretly loaded up with stolen plumbing parts, was that of a birthday party. They were all twenty something Parisians who had gotten out of bed extra early to take their friend out for a birthday surprise. How fun! How quaint! How unsuspicious!

… but in reality it was just an excuse for Kokichi to try and shake off the weird mood he was in with decadently sugary crepes. He had pitched it to DICE as a sort of celebratory feast of a heist well done, but honestly Kokichi had never felt so bored after stealing something in his whole life.

For some reason or another he had felt exhilarated on the plane ride in, but as soon as he got to the actual stealing part everything felt all samey and routine again. He even let Queen make off with a painting of some big dumb flowers that he wanted, hoping that it might spice things up, but now it was just lodged under the seat cushions next to a bunch of fancy looking elbow pipes.

Ugh.

Now that he really thought about it the painting would probably make escaping Paris even more boring… News outlets wouldn't run the headline "Pipes and toilets stolen from the Louvre," when they could run the headline "Priceless painting of pretentious looking flowers stolen from the Louvre." It'd make it easier to sell the plumbing because interpol would be keeping their eyes on the fine art black market instead of Craigslist offers for scrap metal.

Well maybe that was a good thing. Kokichi didn’t want them to get caught selling the pipes, after all. DICE was a bit of a scrappy group from the start and their heists had been decreasing in profitability recently for the expense of spectacle. Bishop told him that their accounts were doing fine and they had enough cash saved up for some frivolous heists, but Kokichi could do math too and thought Bishop’s accounts were slightly suspect.

They were probably just telling him that to make him feel better. Maybe they had noticed that something was off with him. Maybe they were planning with the rest of DICE to overthrow him as the boss and put someone less stupid and predicable in charge instead.

No, Bishop couldn’t do that to him. They weren’t a good enough liar. None of them were good enough liars. Kokichi knew them too well. For instance, right now he knew that Bishop and Ace were having a conversation that Rook was waiting to butt in on, Spade and Club were talking about Mario Kart and Spade was acting like she agreed with what Club was saying even though she didn’t, Queen was pretending to be doing some important coding but was definitely on reddit, King was planning to shove some whipped cream in Rook’s face as soon as he finished his crepe, and Hearts and Jack were leaning in the corner of the four person booth they had all crammed into like a clown car with their legs on top of everyone else’s with Hearts on top of Jack’s lap about to fall asleep while Jack was very noticeably not noticing even though she definitely did notice because Hearts’ boobs were right in her face.

There was so much lying happening, so much play acting, yet everything added up into an equation that seemed all the more sincere. DICE were genuinely celebrating another successful heist. For them, nothing was wrong.

That was so bizarre.

Everything seemed wrong to Kokichi. He felt trapped. He felt like they were all trapped. How could he ever know that his people were genuinely happy when to his knowledge people had to question everything that they found themselves doing. Take, for example, the crepe he had eaten moments ago. He had eaten it in an odd way where he started from the bottom of the crepe’s fold and ate outwards, preserving a perfect ring of outer crepe rind. It didn’t really enhance the taste in any way, seeing as the crepe had a completely even cook, but Kokichi had insisted it did as he ate it regardless because he knew that was in character of the person he had established himself to be. He was the kind of guy who just casually committed food crimes. It’s not that it didn’t still bring him joy to see the faces of his crew scrunch up in disapproval, but it made him wonder if the rest of them realized the same thing about their own behaviors. That they acted a certain way and thought a certain way because of a tacit, invisible social code of who they should be and how they should act towards others, regardless of their own intrinsic motivations.

It made it hard to tell what lay behind their faces. If they were really happy behind the smiles.

They had to be happy, right?

Yeah, if he looked up happy in the dictionary he’d probably see a photograph of King shoving whipped cream in Rook’s ear. Like he was doing right now.

Everyone was safe and having a good time, and yet Kokichi felt like he was watching it all happen from a far away place.

Was Rook really angry as they slugged King in the arm or were they just pretending to be angry because they knew that was the part they had to play in the overall scene of this social interaction?

Kokichi glanced at the other DICE members’ faces. Spades and Clubs were still having their own conversation about a Blue Shell conspiracy theory, but everyone else seemed to be laughing at or pretending not to laugh at King. The thought occurred to Kokichi that he should probably try to match their facial expressions, but upon inspection he found that he was already grinning full force.

Weird.

He let the lie lay flat.

Immediately everyone turned to look at him. That was normal, he was their boss. If he wasn’t happy it meant something was wrong. Except it was also weird. There used to be times when Kokichi was very young where he could be in the middle of a room full of people say anything he wanted at the top of his voice without being heard. He wasn’t the same person on the outside of his head as he was on the inside of his head and he knew that and he used it to his advantage. But would he ever be able to escape it?

…

Okay! That was a series wrap on overanalyzing shit and having memories! Time to not think about any of that ever again!

“I’m bored of crepes.” He whined. “We should go somewhere else.”

Instantly everyone’s face lit up with excitement. “We should go somewhere else” had become a sort of ritual phrase that now meant “Convince me what our next heist should be.”

Everyone started talking at once.

“There’s this casino-”

“The Taj Mahal! We should do the-”

“Fort Knox! I wanna-”

Kokichi raised his hand and the clamoring voices stopped instantly.

“One at a time, shortest to tallest, and not so loud.” He nodded slightly to the woman sitting on a stool behind the cash register. They probably didn’t have to worry much about her. It appeared that she only understood french when she took their orders earlier and now she seemed to be checking her phone disinterestedly. They had also chosen to sit in the booth furthest from the register so really there was very little chance she would overhear them say something that would get them in trouble, but you could never be too sure.

“Well, boss. Most esteemed mastermind. You lovely bastard you,” Spades, the shortest of DICE save for Kokichi himself, schmoozed exaggeratedly. Kokichi could tell she didn’t really have an idea but wanted to draw out her turn as long as possible because Clubs had an idea and she was teasing him like an annoying older sister. She was probably going to pull Buckingham Palace. “I have the best idea. The most creative. The most innovative.” Buckingham Palace was so ridiculously easy to get into that there was entirely no point in wasting a trip to Britain on it. There was some drunk guy who just wandered into it and found the Queen’s bedroom. Twice. “It’ll be tough, but with our unique set of skills I think we’ll be able to pull it off.” So when someone didn’t have an idea, to pass they’d say Buckingham Palace. “And it’ll be well worth it. Our names will go down in history.” And then Kokichi would give a funny excuse why they weren’t going. He should probably start thinking of one now while Spades was still blabbering. “The biggest heist of all time.” Hmm… How about… Yeah that was a good one. “Home of her royal majesty herself, Buckingham Palace!”

Everyone groaned as if this weren’t an entirely predictable twist to Spade’s monologue.

“Uggh, Spade you know I can’t go back to Buckingham Palace.” Kokichi groaned. “Last time I was there I saw Prince Phillip dressed in a corgi fursuit being tugged around by the queen on a leash. I’m still trying to erase the image from my mind.”

That got an easy guffaw from Ace and a smattering of giggles from everyone else. Not bad, but he’d come up with funnier before.

Jack giggled longer than the others. Kokichi knew that meant she was waiting for everyone to quiet down so she could one up him with her own bit.

He raised an eyebrow. “Something to say, Jack?”

“Ooh… Well… I was just wondering if that’s the real reason we can’t go back.”

She paused for a second as if expecting him to “yes, and” her, but he decided to let her fend for herself on this one.

“I mean. What was it you said to your husband on the plane?” Shit. “Didn’t you tell him you wanted him to beg like a dog?” How much of that conversation did she hear? “I don’t know, sounds like Prince Phillip might’ve awakened something in you.”

“Awwww,” King crooned, “Boss Baby’s first fetish.”

Kokichi wasn’t really bothered by this implication beyond the fact that, judging from the smattering of snickers, it was getting better laughs than his original comment. He needed to swing this.

“Puhlease. Who would be into pet play when feral rats are clearly the sexiest creatures on the planet?”

“Is that why you spend so much time trying to look just like one?”

“Why Jack, I’m flattered you think I look just like the sexiest creature on the planet, but I’ll have you know I’m married.”

Hearts was nice enough to take the bit. “To who?”

“Not that plane detective?” Bishop prodded. Or maybe they said “plain” detective? Maybe it was a pun. Good on you Bishop.

“No, heavens no. I’m married to Ratatouille himself.” Kokichi’s rather strangely eaten crepe was about to work out pretty well in the grand scheme of japery. He unfurled the remaining ring of crepe edge and put it around his wrist. “Want proof? Here’s the ring. Isn’t it beautiful?”

“Gorgeous!” Queen enthused. It didn’t seem like he was really paying attention, with his eyes glued to his laptop, but Kokichi appreciated his support nonetheless.

Jack frowned. “Isn’t the rat from Ratatouille’s name Remmy?”

“You’re right it’s not Ratatouille, it’s Ratatouille’s monster.” Rook chimed in, definitely quoting a tumblr post. “No, no, no, I’m not married to the rat, I’m married to the concept of Ratatouille.” He made a romantic gesture. “The one we hold dear in all of our hearts.”

“Oh, of course, of course.” Ace tried to nod sagely, but the effect was ruined by the big grin on their face. Ace had a hard time not laughing at everything, especially their own jokes.

Club had been pouting this whole time. With this whole thing about Kokichi being into dogs diffused it was probably time to hear out his suggestion. Kokichi was about to say as much, but before the mirth died down long enough to change the subject, Queen interjected.

“Uh, boss.” He said, turning around the laptop he had been fiddling with the whole time. “Speaking of rats… There’s one on the news making himself a loose end...”

On the screen was a distressed looking headline in french accompanied by a picture of the detective himself, Shuichi Saihara.

Kokichi’s heart leapt.

Then he noticed that it leapt.

And that his hand had begun moving to fiddle with the bandage on his finger.

He stopped himself just in time.

---

Shuichi Saihara had always found it strange how quickly his body could turn on him.

He had been fine, on the plane untangling his seat belt while alarmed chattering spread like wild-fire throughout the plane.

He had been fine, explaining to a frazzled flight attendant and captain that no he was not in fact married to the gentleman who jumped out of the plane, who was, as it turns out, an internationally wanted thief.

He had been fine, making the call to 112 and explaining to the respondent that yes he knew all the police cars were busy with a high profile break-in and that the incident he was reporting was, in fact, related to said break-in.

And yet, when he sat down, alone on a bench in front of the Paris-Charles De Gaulle airport surrounded by the crisp night air the thought crossed his mind that DICE had robbed the Louvre by now. That they had gotten away, and it was all his fault. All his fault.

And then Shuichi pulled out his phone and dialled the number of his very good friend Kaito Momota because he was having a panic attack.

*Beeeeeep….*

Shuichi knew he was having a panic attack because it felt like the world was ending for no good reason.

*Beeeeeep….*

His breathing got shorter. An immense pressure built up behind his eyes, trying to force tears to leak out from underneath them. His hands locked in a vice grip around his phone.

*Beeeeeep….*

Three words repeated in his head over and over again like a broken record. All your fault. All your fault. All your fault.

*Beeeeeep….*

If Shuichi had any presence of mind right now, it might occur to him that there was, in fact, a reason behind this panic attack. That he’d been privy to and partially responsible for so many high stakes cases in his career that the idea of failure made his imagination sick with all the horrifying outcomes his mistakes could cause, including the ones that had actually come to pass. A man looking at him with hatred in his eyes as the police car door shut on him. All your fault . A fourteen year old girl hanging from a noose. All your fault . The sound of a gunshot in an alleyway. All your fault . The phrase was like the slightest twitch of a finger that could pull back the trigger of a gun loaded with every horrific thing he’d ever seen, heard, or felt. Everything hit his brain in one compact shot and Shuichi didn’t have time to respond in any way except try desperately to avoid going into shock.

It felt like the world was ending and when the world is ending you call Kaito Momota.

*Beee-*

*Click.*

“...”

“Shuichi?”

Kaito’s voice sounded groggy and confused over the phone.

“...”

“You there, man?”

Shuichi tried to answer in the affirmative, but he couldn’t seem to force himself to speak. God, he was an idiot. He should’ve just texted. Kaito probably hated him anyway.

“What’s up, dude? Something the matter?”

No, Kaito is his friend and things are fine and he just needs to calm down right now.

“Hello?”

Okay. Okay. He was just trying to talk the wrong way. His throat was tensed to accommodate his heavy breathing instead of human speech.

“Shuichi, is that you breathing weird into the receiver?”

Yeah, okay, see? He was breathing weird. He should… stop that…

“Ok, dude, whatever’s going on I’m gonna need you to not asphyxiate. Here, breathe with me. Inhale. Two... Three... Four... Five... Exhale. Two... Three... Four... Five...”

Oh yeah. Shuichi was definitely breathing too fast right now. Panicky fast. Like close to hyperventilating fast. The kind of breathing fast that started squeezing liquids out of your face if you weren’t careful. Not doing that was like the first thing on the not having a panic attack checklist but somehow it was always the one Shuichi forgot first.

“Inhale. Two... Three... Four... Five... Exhale. Two... Three... Four... Five...” Kaito repeated the rhythm and Shuichi could hear his friend matching it with his own breathing as Shuichi struggled to do the same.

Inhale. Two... Three... Four... Five...

As Shuichi counted in his head he felt almost every part of his body loosen to some degree.

Exhale. Two... Three... Four... Five...

With the exhale the pressure behind his eyes began to dissipate.

Pretty soon Shuichi was breathing in a way that the kids these days would call normal. While breathing normally was something human beings needed to do to not asphyxiate, it was quite shocking how physically helpful it was in preventing Shuichi from crying on a bench in front of an airport in Paris.

He could still feel his heart pounding in his head, but at least his breaths weren’t fighting to outmatch its volume.

The pounding went away by about the third exhale. He felt his power of speech return after the fourth.

“... Sorry.” He murmured into the receiver on his cell phone.

“Nothing to apologize for man. What’s going on?”

“I. Uh. Am having a panic attack in front of the airport for some dumb reason.”

“Gotcha gotcha gotcha.” Some shuffling, as if Kaito was repositioning himself on the other side. “I bet it’s not as dumb as you think man. You wanna talk about it, or do you want a distraction?”

A woman bleeding out on the floor, her face eternally frozen in a scream. All your fault .

“... A distraction is good. Just having, like, intrusive thoughts right now.”

“Yeah, okay. Gimme a sec to make myself sociable, it’s pretty late here.” Shuichi heard some more shuffling through the speaker. He’d probably woken Kaito up.

“Sorry.”

“It’s all good man.” Kaito shuffled around some more. “Hmm… Oh yeah, I had a question at dinner, no one was around to answer.” “Oh, is Maki out again?” Maki was Shuichi’s friend, Kaito’s partner, and a professional bodyguard. She stood next to people and looked intimidating in a suit for a living. Sometimes she stood next to Shuichi and looked intimidating for free.

Maki holding a pipe, the end coated in blood. All your fault .

Inhale. Two... Three... Four... Five... Exhale. Two... Three... Four... Five...

“Yeah, that’s our Maki Roll. Busy as a bee.” There was a scritching sound over the phone that could’ve been static or Kaito itching his stubble. “Since I was cooking for one last night I made Saturn-ghetti.”

Shuichi wrinkled his nose instinctively. “Ew.”

Saturn-ghetti was what Kaito called regular spaghetti with one big meatball in the middle. It sounded tame enough now that Kaito made the big meatball on his own, but when he first introduced Shuichi and Maki to the concept it was in their college’s cafetorium and he had just taken all the meatballs from a regular spaghetti and meatball dish and mashed them all together into one big ball in the middle. Shuichi had quite literally seen murder scenes less gruesome.

“Hey man, I don’t judge Maki Roll for dipping fries in shakes or you for dipping bread in soups.”

“Dipping is normal Kaito. You’re supposed to dip carbs. Everyone does it. You’re the only person in the whole world who mushes meat.”

What about that guy who used a meat tenderizer to mush his victim’s faces in…

“Why would you want to eat tiny meatballs?”

“So you can eat them with the spaghetti.”

“Can’t a guy just have a separate meat and noodle experience? You can’t even process the flavor if you eat both at once!”

“They’re supposed to go together. Otherwise, you would just make a meatloaf.”

“Well I don’t have a recipe for meatloaf Shuichi, I have a recipe for meatballs.”

“Do you mean meatball, singular?”

“Yes, I do. Glad we can both agree that’s what I mean since it’s the best way to eat spaghetti. Anyway, back to my problem.”

“I thought this was the problem.”

“Saturn-ghetti is not a problem it’s an art. My problem was that when I was making the noodles I realized that I had forgotten what that metal bowl thingy is called. You know, the one with the holes in it.”

“If only that had stopped you.”

“Yo, I’m serious! I have no idea what it’s called and it’s been driving me insane all night.”

“Do you mean a strainer?”

“No, I know it strains stuff but like there’s a different name for it. Like. It sounds like cauliflower? Except not because it’s not a vegetable.”

“A colander?”

“Yeah, that’s it! Jeezus Louizus that was driving me crazy. You’re a lifesaver man, where would I be without you?”

“Uh probably googling ‘another name for noodle strainer.’” Shuichi didn’t really see how knowing what the metal strainy thing is called could save a life. Maybe if you were getting murdered and had one chance to write down the name of the culprit and you knew their name was the same as what that metal strainy thing is called but you forgot what it was. Wait, no, in that scenario you still got murdered. God, what was wrong with him? Did his brain always have to jump to murder right away?

“Nah,” Kaito said with conviction. “I wouldn’t be half the man I am without my awesome sidekick around to back up.”

At the familiar phrase, Shuichi felt his heart warm and the tight ball of anxiety in his gut loosened in turn. “Sidekick,” was admittedly an odd term of endearment for a friend of almost ten years, but if you knew Kaito you knew it was a word that meant something to him. To him, having a sidekick means having someone who you backup no matter what. Even if they make mistakes or aren’t sure of themselves quite yet. Because you believe in them. No matter what.

“I wouldn’t be where I am today without you either, Kaito.” He sighed. “Not that that’s saying much…”

“What do you mean by that?” Shuichi could hear the frown in Kaito’s voice.

“Ugh. Nothing. Or. It’s just.” Inhale, two, three, four. Remember to breathe. “It just feels awful to be having a freak out like this again. I haven’t had a panic attack in like a year. It just feels like sometimes that I’m doing okay and I’m not still some stupid teenager still freaking out because I feel a little guilty about a guy being in prison and my parents not being around because of me and then I have a panic attack at an airport and it feels like I’ve made absolutely no progress at all in dealing with any of my anxieties at all and even though I’ve tried so hard to change who I am I’m still the same pathetic kid I’ve always been.”

Keep breathing. Exhale, two, three, four.

“Hey man, it’s okay. We all get those days sometimes. You feeling up to talking about it now?”

“Which part?”

“Like, why you were freaking out. It’s usually not for no reason, even if it seems like it.”

“Uh.” Yeah okay. Breathing was really helping to clear out his head. He was feeling more in control of his general brainspace than he was a second ago, which was good. “Honestly it’s not the worst thing that could’ve happened. No one died. All that happened was the Louvre got robbed.”

“Yeah, okay that doesn’t sound that bad.”

“But on the other hand, it was the Louvre that got robbed. It’s a national treasure here. The whole country is going to blame me for it.”

“Wait, sorry, what’s the loo in French again? I know it means the toilet in the UK, but does it mean something else in French?”

“No, not the loo. The Louvre. The famous museum.”

“Oooh, yeah. Right, right, don’t listen to me I’m tired.”

“Oh, sorry-”

“No, no, keep going. Listening to my sidekick’s problems is more important than catching forty winks.”

“Uh. Right. So I’ve been tracking DICE for a while now, right?”

“Uh-huh, the clown guys, I’m familiar.”

“And I know Maki thought I was crazy, but I knew that they were going to pull this job on the Louvre, right? And so I get on the plane and this weird guy sits next to me. He breaks my seat and pretends to be married to me so that the flight attendant upgrades us to first class.”

“What the hell?”

“Is that weird? I couldn’t tell if that was weird or not.”

“No yeah, that’s shady as shit. Do I need to come to Paris and tell him to step off for you?”

“No, uh, you’d probably have a hard time finding him, because it turns out? He was the thief the whole time?”

“Whaaaaaat.” “Yeah, apparently I was just shooting the breeze with a criminal mastermind and I’m such an idiot I should’ve jumped out of the plane after him without a parachute.” Like that guy they found impaled by a lamp post...

“Hey man that’s on him, you can’t blame yourself for the existence of criminal- wait did you say he jumped out of the plane?”

“Yes.”

“Like, while you were in the air?”

“Uh, yeah, through the emergency exits.”

“Duuuuude that’s super dangerous. I don’t know how high up you were but the pressure change could’ve caused all of the oxygen to suck out of the cabin.”

“That’s… Alarming…”

It also brought up some interesting questions. Shouldn’t the pilot of the plane have been able to tell that there was a life threatening pressure change in the cabin? Or did DICE do something to tamper with the equipment? Did they manage to jump out at an altitude that wouldn’t be lethal to everyone in the cabin through chance or calculation? In the latter case that might add to the traits profiling the group, the ability implying at least some form of higher education. What about other sources of information? Maybe they bribed the pilot? He’d need to be interviewed. Shuichi would need to make that suggestion when the police got here. They’d probably also want to do a forensic analysis of the drug that was used on the passengers. There’d most likely be some trace of component that they could utilize to locate possible business contacts or country of origin for the thieves. Knowing their flight information was also a great advantage, it meant they could track down several forms of ID. Even if they were faked it would allow for higher scrutiny on future flight paths if Interpol decided to pursue this investigation seriously. Toilets wouldn’t really keep their attention, most investigators at the Smithsonian were more concerned about the mammoth than all the stolen picture frames, so unless DICE made off with something more valuable this time around Interpol probably wouldn’t waste time sending agents over. Then again Agent Ishimaru was the agent in charge of the DICE case now and he was very thorough when it came to his investigations. If Interpol showed up, maybe Shuichi would get a chance to look at the next note when it was sent to them, like he had in America...

“Hey, am I supposed to be able to track everything it is you’re muttering to yourself there or is that just for you?”

“Oh, uh,” Hghk he was muttering out loud. “Just for me, sorry. Stuff about the case.”

“Oh, yeah, okay cool, cool, cool.” Kaito paused for a moment. “Wish I could be there to back you up in person, man. Hurts my soul as a man and your friend that I didn’t support you all the way on this Louvre thing when you brought it up before.”

“What?” Oh, he meant that thing that Maki said about him needing a vacation. “No, no it’s understandable. I was running on like… fifteen minutes of sleep and fourteen cups of coffee when I told you two about my theory.”

“Man, I just want you to know that no matter what we’re always here to support you. Even if we get it wrong sometimes we’re just worried you know. Also, you need to sleep more.”

Shuichi frowned. “You make it sound like you and Maki are my parents.”

“Nah, parents suck. We’re your friends. Much better.”

Shuichi laughed at that. “Yeah, okay, fair.”

Was that a siren Shuichi heard? Maybe?

“Kaito I think police are gonna be here soon. I gotta go.”

“Oh, yeah, okay. You feeling better now?”

Shuichi paused to take mental stock of himself. He tried to remember how he felt before he came outside. Things were fine, he was just doing some damage control. By all means this incident was a break in the case rather than the wrecking ball to his career his more panicked thoughts were trying to convince himself of. He was fine. Things were fine.

Except…

“Uh. Yeah, mostly. I guess maybe I’m just tired?” Yeah he was definitely tired. His eyes felt like they’d just spent the last ten years trying to watch the wind on a mountain peak. “I dunno. Logically I know that everything is fine and I’m doing alright, but that part of me that feels like I’ve failed and I’m going to mess everything up forever is still there no matter what I do.”

“Hey man, you know what I always say. There’s nothing you can do about the past, but you will always have the power to change what’s happening right now. You’re my sidekick and a brilliant detective to boot, you can do anything.”

“Right. Yeah. You’re right.” It didn’t really matter that DICE had gotten away with the heist on the Louvre. Plumbing parts and paintings were replaceable. What Shuichi’s investigation had always been concerned with was the amount of unregulated capital DICE was accumulating and what exactly the shady organization was planning to do with it.

“Now tell me what it is you wanna do right now.”

“I… I’m gonna track down those thieves.” That would have to be the next step of course. There’d probably be some evidence at the Louvre if the police would let him take a look…

“Heck yes you are!”

“And I’m going to figure out what they’re up to.”

“Hell yeah you are!”

Shuichi laughed a little at Kaito’s unwarranted enthusiasm, but he let the mirth drained from his expression when he looked up to see the police cars he heard before pulling into the lane in front of the airport. An officer stepped out of the first one and Shuichi stood to wave her over.

“Ah, the police just got here. I gotta talk to them.”

“Fuck yeah you do!” Kaito exclaimed with the same level of pep talk energy he’d said every other encouragement with. “Go get ‘em Shuichi!”

“I will.” Shuichi said, not entirely sure.

“You will.” Kaito said, completely certain.

I will. Shuichi repeated to himself as he hung up and made his way over to the police officers. It seemed like there were three cars. That was kind of odd considering the 112 responder said it’d be two cars. Wait, was that last one a news van?

Shit.

---

Parisians are in shock after the theft of Dutch painter Van Huysum’s priceless, centuries old painting “Vase of flowers in a niche” from the musée du Louvre just this morning. The following interview was conducted with M. Saihara, a private eye known for the recovery of a stolen mammoth skeleton from an american museum, called the Smithsonian, just a few weeks ago.

Journaliste: What can you tell us about the robbery at this time?

M. Saihara: It is the working theory of the Paris Police force that the culprits behind the break in at the musée du Louvre are the internationally wanted criminal group known as DICE. These police sketches have been released of two members of this group. If you spot anything or anyone suspicious, please report it to the Paris Police Prefecture.

Journaliste: Are these the same criminals who robbed the Smithsonian in America a few weeks ago?

M. Saihara: I believe so.

Journaliste: Is it likely that the robbers are still in Paris?

M. Saihara: Very likely.

Journaliste: What are the chances that the stolen piece will be reclaimed?

M. Saihara: We don’t have enough information to determine that at this time. Just know that the Paris Police Prefecture is doing everything they can to return it to the people of Paris.

Journaliste: What of the criminals? Is it likely they will be caught?

M. Saihara: If I have anything to say about it, yes they will be.

Journaliste: M. Saihara, do you know if-

M. Saihara: Je suis désolé Mademoiselle, I must be going now. The Paris police will most likely release a more elucidating press statement when more information is received. Bonne journée.

Journaliste: Merci, M. Saihara.

Kokichi Ouma exited out of the google translate tab he’d opened up on Queen’s laptop. At the end of the article were two police sketches. Jack’s didn’t look all that accurate (thank god for contouring) so Kokichi supposed they could all breathe a sigh of relief on that front. Now, the sketch of him on the other hand…

King whistled and Kokichi realized the taller DICE member was leaning over his shoulder to peer at the screen in front of him. “That detective really got a good look at you.”

Kokichi scoffed, not wanting to raise unnecessary alarm. “Please. The nose and eyebrows are all wrong.”

“He really got down the bird’s nest though.” King pointed out, reaching to muss up Kokichi’s effortlessly stylish coiffure.

“What’d I tell you?” Kokichi preened. “No living creature could forget a face like mine.”

“You’re right,” King quipped back “It’s a face that haunts nightmares.”

“A face only a mother could love.” Rook chimed in.

“And yours gave you away after just one look!” Chirped Bishop.

“Hey maybe that Saihara guy wants to try lovin’ it instead.” Queen interjected suggestively

“Okay, okay, can it everyone,” Kokichi raised his hand to silence the spontaneous roast. “I’m thinking.”

“Club,” He pointed at his second shortest croney.. “Where are we heading?”

Club, who to his credit had been extremely focused on being polite and waiting for his turn and had definitely earned a heist after mixing ten liters of knock-out drugs in the back of a plane, exclaimed, “Theresthiscasino-” like he had been holding his breath, “-andtheyjustgotthesefancynewlightfixtures and, and, alsothesevintagearcadeconsoles-”

“Sounds cool.” Kokichi’s tone didn’t give away the fact that he had no preference as to where their next hit was and only had getting out of Paris in mind. “Where’s it at?”

“Uh. Like, Reno. Which is in Nevada. I think.”

Kokichi frowned. “Nevada? Is that like a country in South America or something?”

“Nah, it’s one of the United States.” Informed Ace, the only member who ever got genuinely interested in sight-seeing and therefore the only one who looked at maps that weren’t building schematics.

Kokichi squinted at that. “We were just in the states. You know I’d rather jump off a building than rob the same place twice.”

“Boss, you know, actually Nevada is further from D.C. than France is from Ukraine.”

“What? But aren’t they in the same country?”

“Yeah, the U.S.A. is just broken like that.”

Ugh. Weird. Maybe Kokichi should also look at a map of the world some day.

“Fine, okay, I guess since you twisted my arm, we’ll have to go to Reno.” If Kokichi remembered correctly telephones calling from France started with the area code of one of five regions. Paris had the code of 01, but if they were on the western outskirts it may be 02, or 03 on the eastern outskirts. Then the rest of the phone numbers were eight more randomly assigned numbers. “Let’s head out. Queen, do you still have that program for a spam call bot you showed me three months ago?”

“Uhh maybe, but I’d need wifi for that.”

“Okay.” He stood up, pulling out his phone to do some quick googling. “We’re gonna split in two groups. Red smiles with me in group one, we’re driving out to the Tours Val de Loire Airport down south. Make sure you have the right cover story IDs, it’s a three hour drive so prepare yourselves. Bishop, you’re going to have to do my makeup in the car. Everyone else will be in the other van with Queen, group A. After you’ve found a source of wifi, you five will be calling in some false reported sightings. Not too many, but enough in specific places we won’t be going that it’ll misdirect the police. I’ve written down the phone number rules for France on this napkin. If it seems like we’re in the clear you can overflow the system if you want to. Message us with progress updates and we’ll confer about flights and cargo control after group one has reached Tours Val de Loire. Group A will take off from the Orly airport and we’ll meet at Reno-Tahoe International in a few days. I've sent a message in the groupchat with everything I’ve just said, so don’t worry if you missed a detail it’s all there verbatim. Let’s get rolling.”

“Yes, Boss!” The members of DICE said with varying levels of conviction.

Kokichi handed Queen the napkin he had written on as the rest of DICE started to stand up from the four seater cafe booth they’d all crammed into like a clown car. He grabbed another napkin that he would use to write the next note to interpol. What would the six layers of cipher be this time? What about a set of random symbols equated to numbers that would represent the coordinates of katakana strokes in a one unit box which would then translate to english letters in a polyalphabetic cipher which would reveal the riddle? Wait that was only five layers. Eh, he could work on it in the-

Kokichi saw detective Saihara’s photograph on the monitor out of the corner of his eye and his swirling thoughts came to a momentary hallt.. It seemed like the picture had been taken hurriedly outside of the Paris de Gaulle. It was blurry and a little dark. All Kokichi could really see was that his shirt was half untucked and his hair was so messy you could hardly tell he had eyes. Kokichi found himself wishing he could get a good look at those eyes. Just to tell what the detective was thinking.

Not that it mattered.

Kokichi closed the computer and slid it over to Queen as he exited the booth.

As he handed it over, Queen gave him an odd look, like he had noticed something. “Where’d you get that cut, boss?” he asked.

“I punched through a window with my bare hands, just to feel something again...” Kokichi replied, putting on an exaggerated grimace.

Queen gave him a look that said ‘what did I expect’ and followed the rest of the gang out of the shop.

The Louvre heist was as good as over. He’d gotten away with it already.

Kokichi wondered if any of the heists to come would be at all helpful in the war against tedium he had been fighting his entire life.

“If I have anything to say about it, yes they will be.”

Kokichi realized he was fidgeting with the bandage on his finger.

…

Good bye, Paris.

#shuichi x kokichi #shuichi saihara #shuichi danganronpa #kokichi ouma #kokichi danganronpa #oumasai #fanfiction #Phantom Thief AU #yeah im still here haha #this fic is long and im still working on it #Thank you everyone for your support!#danganronpa v3 #drv3 #danganronpa #I would read on AO3 if you need warnings #writing

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aidenalcorn9 · 4 years

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bloody-fists-beating-hearts · 5 years

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It’s a Fallout76/Bethesda rant

Bethesda just released Fallout 1st, a horseshit pay-to-win subscription system for their absolute cum-bubble of a game, and while it’s getting the flack it deserves there are people already putting on their kneepads so they can gobble down Todd Howards entire turgid cock, and as someone who likes rpg’s way too much this irked me, so have a massive and barely coherent rant i took off the discord because why not.

I want to start off with this: Every good thing about current fallout comes from the fanbase. The stories people tell, the headcanons, the fanfics, the art, everything fans do for it is made with more love, and more thought, than anything Bethesda’s writing and games design team has done in the last 10 years

Now first of all, I haven’t bought or played 76. People are gonna stop me right there and go ”well you haven’t bought it how would you know its bad!!” yeah, I’ve never eaten dog shit either but I can pretty well guess that I ain’t gonna fucking like it.

I knew the second he said "there are no npcs" with actual enthusiasm that this game was gonna be shit. And if you give me 2 seconds to gloat, I never bought the game and I knew this was gonna happen and I was RIGHT so suck my fat hairy nuts all those fanboys who pre-order things mindlessly just because there's a brand name attached to it. If there is anything you take from this its DO NOT PREORDER. BRAND LOYALTY IS FOR BOOMERS AND BOOTLICKERS. FOR FUCKS SAKE BE SMART WITH YOUR MONEY.

Games like this are fucking 80-90 dollars or more in Australia so I actually have to think about whether this momentary distraction is worth almost an entire days paycheck, and I’m still looking for employment which means I actually haven’t bought shit in a while (side note, anyone wants to commission me for 10 dollars I’ll draw damn near anything. God I need to make rent)

Every executive at Bethesda seems to be playing catch-up to EA's monetisation scheme. Beth has abandoned their model of single-player rpg's in favour of a "games as a service" model. Fallout 76 seems to me like its a weird experiment for just how far they can stretch this and still make money. It actually makes me wonder if they are

a) just completely unaware of fanbase response [no idea HOW]

b) are running into financial problems and are doing this out of desperation

c) todd howard is still mad that obsidian made a better fallout than he ever could and he's doing this out of spite

Games as a whole has become much like the movie industry where publishers will throw big buckets of cash around to development teams, and those teams have CEO's and higher ups that throw lavish meet n greets and have nice fancy suits and cars and then treat their development teams like shit, overworking them to the point of exhaustion, because the product has to be on time for release dates that are scheduled to be the most profitable (christmas is a notable one).

And those products are consistently bland, shitty, shallow experiences. Narrative cum-dumpsters that are purposefully made to toe the line as safely as possible, to be open to as wide as an audience as possible so they can make the most money, and Bethesda is a huge offender. Skyrim was fun, sure, but it was watered down to fuck, it had shitty dialogue, it had bland one-note characters, it had a simplified skill system. It was impossible to lose. Seriously, try and fail a fucking quest in skyrim, other than one or two, it's a hand-holder of an rpg, but it has a huge community of fans that put in monumental effort, for free, because they like the Elder Scrolls, and they like the world bethesda made.

Then Bethesda goes "hey, that watered down thing we made got huge! lets release it about 12 more fucking times, with some of the SAME bugs, with the SAME content, with the SAME limitations and Yes, we absolutely expect you to pay for it, again. Then they release the remastered edition which, to their credit, is free to anyone who already bought the legendary edition (on PC), and does actually have updated 64bit capability and some graphical enhancements (that aren't anywhere near what some goober in his basement cooked up in his spare time, but whatever). Then, seeing that Skyrim was so popular, with kids especially, and made money, they turn their sights to fallout 4, a game that was so anticipated that someone made a fake countdown and caused a small meltdown on tumblr/social media when it was revealed to be fake (i was part of that fiasco, i remember the hype, i was there goddamnit)

So Fallout, a franchise that literally has its theme as its FUCKING TAGLINE, an ADULT game that is equal parts crude, gory and humorous. A game that satirises the cold war era of american my-country-tis-of-thee blind loyalty and openly mocks the way war was idealised, and shows that not even the literal end of the world could either stop humanity's lust for blood or its desire for conquest. Games that showed you the growth of the world - from shady sands to the NCR, from the vault dweller to arroyo, shit actually happened in the games, the world didn't just stop turning when the bombs dropped. A game where you you become a porn star for fucks sake, and it's funny.

So Bethesda sees that, makes something like it (fallout 3) which is good, but a little rough around the edges when you look at it too hard. But the way they suck you into the vault, the way they build a relationship with your dad and your way of life is immersive as fuck, so when you leave the place you actually feel like you're leaving something important, not just finishing the tutorial

then they outsource a Fallout game to obsidian, because hey, we saved your franchise by buying it off you, but if you can make an entire game in one year and get a metacritic score of 85 we'll even throw in a bonus. And fuck me sideways and in the ear, if the obsidian devs didn't work themselves harder than a 4-armed hooker. And they made a game that on release was a clusterfuck of bugs, because they were given an unrealistic time limit and missed the metacritic score by ONE POINT so bethesda goes "nhey heh sucks to suck" and fucks them off the franchise forever. EXCEPT (and I admit I'm biased here) the game is good. The game is actually really good when you remove those bugs, and people start forming attachments to it, and mentioning how bad fallout 3's writing is by extension.

So Todd and Co. in his infinite wisdom, decide that the only thing a fallout rpg needs is 50s aesthetic and fuck all else, and he releases a game so watered down it can't even be called an rpg. And its not. There are no skills. There are barely any dialogue checks. Instead of dialogue, Nate/Nora is a flat, samrish individual that is either "yes sir right away sir may i have another", "yes but i'm gonna make an unfunny quip about it" "this option pretends to say no but its gonna give you the quest marker anyway".

The game drops any pretence of difficulty by giving you a deathclaw, a minigun and some power armour in the first 10 minutes, allowing you to effectively reach late-game power levels with some minor scavenging for ammo or cores. Then the game ropes you into some inter-faction war that realistically you wouldn't give a shit about, because some spud in a cowboy hat fucking deputizes you into a military general because you shot like 4 raiders from a rooftop (with a minigun. in power armour. making you nigh-invulnerable to bullets). You're sad about your son about 3 times the whole game and then you're on your merry way to mowing down humans left right and center without a care in the world. God fallout 4's writing is so stupid it gives me an aneurysm.

Remember the part about resources wars and america only having the veneer of a strong country while riots, inflation, and resource shortages tore it apart from within? Bethesda doesn't, have an eerily stepford pastel coloured glimpse at a world that was totally fine, nothing wrong here, shame it got nuked oh well moving on

Your spouse? yeah you love them, they're said 2 whole sentences to you then they died, be sad because you totally loved them and it is totally sad that they are dead. Your weird play-dough son shaun, you love him so much, you even tickled him on the chin once, okay he's gone off you go to chase him - woah now, don't chase him too hard we have all these side quests for you to do! What would be the narrative reasoning for a supposedly distraught parent to fuck around boston instead of finding their goddamn child? fuck knows! just go pick up some goddamn wood and get to base building sonny-jim!

Companions? yeah, they're fun, we gave them a romance questline and it's thus: if you pick enough locks and pass a minor charisma check maccready will be ready and willing to tell you about his sick child, and then he'll ride you like a stallion. Talk to him like, 4 times, and he will be your bosom buddy for life in about 3-5 days if you just pick locks like a fucking madman, because character growth is hard and counting beans is easy.

Also your son is a part of the faction we were talking about! something about synths, remember that one questline from rivet city that barely anyone actually remembers and was an interesting time waster at best? Well get ready to do that same quest but about! 15! more! times! because we could not think of anything else to write about synthetically produced humans that assume peoples identities other than having them as a hamfisted metaphor for slavery. Why do they take over people's identies? Well because the institute needs them to aasdkfjdh kshshshsh t9oe of course.

Speaking of hamfisted metaphors, here's the underground railroad, named after the underground railroad that actually mattered, except this time its the same thing but synths. They are so top secret that the only way to find them is to follow the only bright red line in a street that is exclusively green-brown otherwise, and then enter their super secret password, which is "password"

They are then, like every other faction, absolutely willing to trust you, at face value, no questions asked, because have to actually do something or require a skill check might make this hard for people under the age of 12 to play. Then you go do whatever fuckin shit you do, I stopped playing at this point, and then you find out your son is actually 60, you guys have a tearful, 10 sentence reunion, then he diesthe whole reason you were out here in the first place dies, and you react appropriately, which is to say you say his name really sadly, and then go back to mowing down raiders with reckless abandon

And then 76 gets released, bethesda drops all pretense of fallout still being an rpg. You want a story? Fuck you, pay up. Its retro future and thats all that makes falloutSatirizing war mongering? You can nuke things in this game and its totally fine, its actually the goal, because fallout has nukes in it right? Pay us 10 dollars and you get army olive drab spraypaint because hurrgh war is fun and great, wasnt that the tagline from the first game?The more i rant the more angry i am because people put their heart and soul into writing this. The lore and dialogue is actual work that someone researched and loved and felt proud of and now it's becoming a hilariously meta parody of itself.

Honestly FUCK bethesda and and fuck todd howard for his pisspoor cash grab. Not even worth calling it a video game anymore

#good lord what is happening in there #meta #listen i fucking love fallout #but this aint fuckin it chief #fallout #fallout 4 #fallout 76 #fallout 3 #fallout new vegas

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buzzdixonwriter · 4 years

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A Long But Not Pointless Ramble In Which We Discuss Sci-Fi Flicks

We’re gonna ramble around a bunch of connected topics, so pour yourself a cuppa and enjoy the ride.

. . .

I’m a big fan of 1950s sci-fi B-movies.

Years ago, when I was chatting with the late film historian Bill Warren on this, he made a pertinent observation: 1950s sci-fi B-movies tend to be more fondly remembered than most better mounted and more professionally executed sci-fi films that came afterwards.

There’s a couple of three reasons for this:

The shock of the new -- most of those films pioneered a brand new genre and style, looking far different from previous genre offerings such as Flash Gordon or Things To Come. As such, they score branding points by being first, even if later examples are better made.

They possess a certain naïve charm -- by and large they’re not sophisticated nor exceptionally well thought out (though when they do demonstrate flashes of intellect, it’s always a delight). One feels these films are being made up on the fly (and in a certain sense, they were; see (1) above) and in an odd manner they prove more innocent and thus more fun than those that came later.

Most of them were cheap -- this combines with points (1) & (2) to force most 1950s sci-fi B-movies to focus tightly on one idea / one image to sell the film. As a result there’s a startling clarity of vision in even the most flimsy of productions that’s lacking in later, more elaborate movies. The weaker examples of this genre are those films trying to cover more ground than their cheaper cousins.

. . .

Two cases in point: Jack Arnold’s Tarantula for Universal is a technically better made movie than Bert I. Gordon’s The Spider for AIP, but Tarantula loses focus, dawdling about on character development and sub-plots instead of concentrating on the big ass spider.

The Spider is far weaker in the script / performances / production value departments, but who gives a %#@& ? -- it’s got a big ass spider tearing up the countryside for most of the picture.

Not to put down Arnold and his effects crew’s efforts; they ingeniously figured out a way to not only get their tarantula to realistically crawl over uneven landscapes but actually cast a shadow as it did so, heightening the realism.

Gordon, conversely, simple shot his spider in front of still photos; the shots look as crude as they sound.

But The Spider delivers what Tarantula only teases: An attack by said big ass spider on a population center. Tarantula famously ends with an uncredited Clint Eastwood napalming the monster in the desert on the outskirts of town; The Spider actually goes rampaging through its town, and features one of the most iconic shots of any sci-fi movie: As the big ass spider bears down on her, a terrified woman slams her car door shut on her skirt and in her panic tries to tug it loose instead of simply opening the door again.

George Lucas crowds the screen with thousands of furiously dogfighting CGI starships and that lacks the gut punching impact of that one simple terrifying shot.

. . .

An even more pertinent example can be found in the oeuvre of Irving Block and Jack Rabin (I know, you’re going “Who?” Patience, young jedi; all will be explained below).

Block and Rabin (along with Louis DeWitt, their silent 3rd partner) ran a small special effects house in Hollywood in the late 1940s-50s with an interesting strategy for drumming up business.

They’d devise an interesting yet inexpensive (i.e., clever but cheap) special effects technique, build a story around it, then pitch that story to low budget movie producers with the proviso their firm would be hired to do the special effects for the final film.

This resulted in a number of low budget sci-fi films built around the kernel of an interesting visual, and while they night not have been great examples of the cinematic art, hey certainly created a number of memorable scenes and images from little more than scotch tape and rubber bands.

Unknown World was their take on Jules Verne’s Journey To The Center Of The Earth (no dinosaurs but then again, no Pat Boone, so they came out ahead on that one); Atomic Submarine pitted the US Navy against a UFO; Kronos featured a wholly unique alien invader; and War Of The Satellites staged an epic space opera on a bargain basement budget.

All noteworthy 1950s sci-fi B-movies, but ironically it was the film where their strategy failed -- or rather, only proved 50% successful -- that stands out.

Figuring out how to make footprints appear as if by magic, Block and Rabin devised a story about a spaceship landing on a planet of invisible monsters (as they pointed out, the great thing about invisible monsters is that even the cheapest production can afford millions of ‘em).

Their agent sent the pitch around to all the usual suspects at that time in the low budget indie film universe but, learning another studio not know for low budget sci-fi wanted to hop on the band wagon, sent it there as well.

That studio bought the idea, thanked Block and Rabin for their input, but said they’d let their own B-movie unit team handle the special effects,

And that’s how MGM made Forbidden Planet.

. . .

Today Forbidden Planet is a much beloved classic of the genre, but when released it proved a bit of a disappointment.

Oh, it made money (then and now, studios refuse to fund a production unless they already know in advance they will recoup their expenses and make a profit in advance of actual production) but it didn’t do anywhere near the business they hoped.

Part of this was timing -- it came out after dozens of lesser / cheaper films crowded the market -- but part of it is paradox: It’s just too damn good.

No bones about it, Forbidden Planet was a B-movie for MGM.

In terms of overall quality, however, any MGM B-movie is bound to look like an A-picture from any other studio, and that’s exactly what happened here: A literate, dynamite script; solid performances; top notch production values; bursting at the seams with ideas and incidents and details.

Sci-fi fans loved it, mainstream audiences not so much.

What sci-fi fans perceived as a groundbreaking classic, mainstream audiences viewed as: Flying saucer something something something robot blah blah blah invisible monster.

What audiences today remember when they think of Forbidden Planet is the single most iconic element of the film.

Robby the robot.

He’s what sticks. Robby made a big enough impression to star in his own follow up feature a few years later (The Invisible Boy) as well as guest star appearances on The Twilight Zone, Lost In Space, Columbo, and scores of other movies / TV shows / personal appearances.

Pick an iconic element. Stick with it.

. . .

The trick to doing memorable sci-fi movies is keeping the key visual elements down to as few sharply defined items as possible.

Star Wars (i.e., the unnumbered original release) is even more crowded in detail than Forbidden Planet but it holds its iconic visual elements down to a crucial handful: Masked villain in black. Laurel & Hardy robots. Friendly yeti. Glow swords. Big bad artificial planet.

Every other visual element serves those, and while they provide detail and texture, they aren’t distractions.

Seriously, jettison the plot of the original Star Wars and reconfigure it from the ground up with those elements and it still winds up pretty much the same film, just set on different worlds.

This is why later films in the series, despite bigger and bigger revenues, lack the memorable freshness and emotional clarity of the original (getting cluttered up with superfluous characters and vehicles inserted just to sell toys doesn’t help, and I post this as one of the original writers for the G.I. Joe and Transformers series).

To reiterate: If you want to make an impression, less is more.

. . .

We’re going to amble on over to a parallel path and talk about ultra-low budget / no budget / homemade / hand-crafted / DIY film making, particularly in the sci-fi arena.

I watch a fair amount of lo-to-no budget sci-fi on Amazon Prime and YouTube. Many of these are done for pure love of the genre and the film making process, and from that POV of producers and participants just wanting to have fun, they’re modestly enjoyable.

From the POV of actual good film making and sci-fi…not so much. (There are exceptions and we’ll get to one of those; patience, young jedi…)

The overwhelming bulk of these films -- features and shorts -- are pretty derivative.

I don’t mean “unoriginal” the way 80-90% of professionally produced media is unoriginal, I mean “derivative” as in trying specifically to re-create something someone else did first…

...and better.

And this is in addition to the plethora of Star Trek / Star Wars / Dr. Who / superhero fan films out there; those are a separate though related phenomenon.

Rather, it’s the unmpeenth Alien ripoff / the 400th E.T. variant / the latest Mad Max clone / the most current example of last decade’s biggest hits.

They’re generally not that good taken on their own, no matter how much fun the makers are having.

For me the nadir of such films are those done by film makers imitating bad movies by deliberately making a bad movie.

Don’t do that, folks.

Please.

Don’t squander time and talent doing substandard work.

I’m not saying don’t make the kind of film (or draw the kind of art, or write the kind of story) you want to make; I’m just saying don’t deliberately make a piss-poor job of it.

Block and Rabin may never have made a truly good movie but not because they weren’t trying!

Cheap films? Yes. Exploitable films? Yes.

But films meant to be as good as they could make them.

There’s an MST3K notorious bad 1950s sci-fi movie called Teenagers From Outer Space. Tom Graef, its writer / producer / director / editor / co-star was a former film student wanting to break into the big time so he made this cheesy movie to the utmost of his ability.

And lordie, it ain’t good…

…but by gawd, he was trying.

The folks who make deliberately bad pastiches of substandard B-movies were always a sore point for Bill Warren.

“The original film makers weren’t trying to make a bad movie!” he’d rave.

So please, don’t do deliberately shoddy work and try to explain it away by calling it a “parody”.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a parody, and everybody in it is aiming for the centerfield fence, turning in A-level performances.

I know it’s fun making models and cobbling together costumes and props and sets from junk, and recruiting friends and family to have fun making a movie, and if your audience is just going to be those friends and family, fine.

But if you want to be seen and appreciated by a wider audience, have some respect for them…and your own abilities as a film maker.

. . .

All of which brings us in a roundabout fashion to The Vast Of Night, a recent ultra-low budget sci-fi film that asks the non-musical question “What would a Twilight Zone mash-up of X-Files and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind look like?”

“Pretty impressive,” is the answer.

Let’s start with the Achilles’ heel of most lo-to-no budget DIY productions: The cast.

The Vast Of Night enjoys impeccable casting, a;; the way down to the most minor roles.

I can’t stress enough how important this is for small productions.

Actors give you more bounce for your buck than anything else on your budget. Good actors can make mediocre material bearable, they can bring good material to full blown life.

In The Vast Of Night’s case, the two leads -- Jake Horowitz as Everett, an all night DJ in a tiny late 1950s New Mexico town, and Sierra McCormick as Fay Crocker, the local substitute late night phone operator -- play off each other with delightful on screen chemistry.

No kidding, I’d watch these two characters go grocery shopping for an hour and a half, that’s how well Horowitz and McCormick play off each other.

Next, the story. Obviously story and screenplay come before casting, but in the final analysis an okay story is far better served by a good cast than a good story by an okay cast.

Screenwriters James Montague and Craig W. Sanger do a good job with their script for The Vast Of Night. As noted, it’s far from original but is fleshed out with enough distinctive elements to let the cast find plenty to work with.

For aspiring film makers, the script is typically the least expensive part of the process, and if you don’t like your draft you can always chuck it out and start afresh,

Finally, it’s okay to look inexpensive but don’t look cheap.

You can get away with a stark cinema verité style if that’s what the material calls for but you need to keep a consistent style and tone throughout.

A lot of DIY films do themselves a grave disservice by spending a lot of time / energy / money on a prop / costume / special effect that calls undo attention to itself by being so much better than everything surrounding it.

Director Andrew Patterson keeps things stylish while clamping a lid on its budget; this good pre-production planning pays off with a consistency of style and tone that helps keep the audience engaged, their disbelief suspended.

The Vast Of Night is what I refer to as a “minimum basic movie” i.e., the lowest bar you should shoot for with your own film making.

It’s far from a deathless classic, but it’s a fun ride.

And speaking of fun rides…this ramble is o-v-e-r.

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mikami · 5 years

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Death Note Audio Drama 06

Disc 6: Grey-zone - a summary / partial translation

Prior translations / an explanation as to what the fuck this is.

In this: Rem dragging business men, a lot. NightGod228, the playboy. A minor character gets confirmed as gay, but only as part of a homophobic humorous quip, so let’s not get excited. There’s also some fun focus on the internal relations of the Yotsuba Eight, but sadly nothing becomes of it in later discs.

Hatori is inexplicably nicknamed ‘Harry’.

_______

We begin with Rem explaining the rules of the Death Note to Higuchi, as well as telling him what he is supposed to do / who he is supposed to kill. Rem also somehow discloses that someone she is closed to is accused of murder.

Higuchi’s catchphrase in this is “business is war”.

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TITLE MUSIC

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L visits Soichiro in his cell. Soichiro insists on living in the same conditions as Light, even if he could have better. L tells Soichiro that the new Kira murders continue. L is not totally convinced of Light’s innocent anyway, thinks he’s in the grey. He suggests a test to Soichiro, to ‘take some drastic measures’. (Soichiro: “Oh? And we haven’t done that so far?”)

______

Light in his cell. He’s getting taken out of it now, against his will and without explanation.

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Aizawa trying to get into the new headquarters they just now moved into, in a scene that references the anime one with the belt (just without the belt). Aizawa in this somehow goes by “Shu” with people in the task force, short for his first name “Shuichi”.

Thew new HQ has been downgraded to 10 stories instead of the 23 from the manga. Watari shows Aizawa around. Aizawa refuses to move into the building, due to his daughter going to school totally elsewhere.

______

Soichiro and Misa in the car.

MISA: Is that you? The pervert who held me captive this whole time?

SOICHIRO: No! No, I.... I have a daughter.

MISA: Congratulations, I have a cat. Orrr... I had a cat. Uugh, I bet she ran away already and gets her food elsewhere. Uuhh... How long was I gone? How long was I held captive?

At another stop, Light is also brought into the car. The dialogue here is close to the manga.

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The task force is waiting at the junkyard that is planned for the fake execution.

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Light and Misa assume they’ll be let out, but Soichiro informs them its their execution instead. Light tries to... ask for a lawyer. Pretty calmly, too.

But in response, Soichiro is just like ‘well, you’ll not actually be put on trial’ and thus a lawyer is useless. Soichiro says that L promised to kill himself if the murders don’t stop after these executions.

Soichiro declares that he personally has to execute Light, you know the deal.

Wohoo, mock execution.

______

Matsuda accidentally parked at the wrong entrance to the junkyard, so they have to very quickly drive to the other end in order to reach Soichiro and co.............

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Soichiro explains to Light why he did the mock execution and how L accepts that as evidence.

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L talks to Watari. He isn’t actually convinced that Light didn’t just look through the bluff. Thus, he’ll let Misa go as long as she is under police ‘protection’. And Light has to work in the task force.

______

Meeting of the Yotsuba Eight. First Mido presents the yearly finances, which is very quick and without detail.

OOI: If all bullet points get done so quickly, we’ll all end up becoming better at playing golf.

Laughter.

OOI: Point two. The development of real estate in the Tama Hills. What does your department have to say to that?

TAKAHASHI: I-- I didn’t even realize this was a topic today. Could we delay it?

SOMEONE: Seriously?

TAKAHASHI: Everything’s gonna be fine. I just don’t have the numbers with me today.

OOI: I can only let that pass with an explicit warning. The financial department is getting stricter and stricter with the paperwork. One-time delay until the next meeting, but then it really has to happen, Mr. Takahashi.

TAKAHASHI: I’m sorry. It just slipped through.

OOI: It’s fine, we’ll do it next time. Point three and after that we’ll be done already. Who are we going to kill this week?

______

L explains to Light that he can only leave the building if handcuffed to him, but no mention of handcuffs within the building is made. The whole conversation about regulations, dates, and Light being like ‘uh, are we a couple’, etc... those are all pretty much like the manga. L presses the whole memories about their meeting thing for a while and L’s actor will NEVER learn how to say ‘Aoyama’, please save me.

______

Back at the Yotsuba meeting.

REM: Just look at them. Pretending to think really hard. Like little school boys. Is this really the best that an economic force like Japan can offer?

OOI: Oh please, gentlemen, someone has to have an idea.

REM (mocking): Just toss dice, Mr. Representative. Let them draw lots. Toss money in the air and check who’s collecting the most.

SOMEONE: It’s getting difficult. Kira stopped killing criminals and started killing innocent civilians.

HIGUCHI: Quite apparently Kira is now looking for victim’s from whose deaths he can profit somehow.

SOMEONE: So, Kyousuke, you are claiming he’s a hitman now?

HIGUCHI: So far there’s been no complaints. Least of all from you. You all agreed to the deal. We can’t just back out now.

REM: What an important point, Kyousuke. Tell that to these men. Eight different departments in this group and not a single woman in the room?

They keep discussing the Kira matter and why Kira is doing it. Shimura brings up the idea that one of them could be Kira. They decide to not look a gift horse in the mouth and to just kill people. In the end, Rem tells Higuchi to just make name suggestions and so he does.

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Matsuda is declared Misa’s new manager / bodyguard / observation agent. Light finds this ridiculous. L then also asks Light to get more information from Misa, since she loves him so much. Light says he doesn’t like the thought of playing with girls’ feelings.

Light: [...] Someone is seriously going to get hurt. [emotionally]

L: There are human lives at stake in this game. [shitty translation, but ‘to be at stake’ in the German INCLUDES the word ‘game’ already, idiomatically.]

Light: I don’t play.

L: Strange, because that’s exactly how I’d describe your old self.

LIGHT: What?

L: Who is Kiyomi Takada?

LIGHT: A girl I had a few dates with. So?

L: Who is Yuri Ohara?

LIGHT: A girl I had dates with.

L: 73% of your contacts on social media are women, did you know that?

LIGHT: I’m popular.

L: Over the last two years, you’ve been NightGod228 on two different dating platforms. With more than 500 likes?

LIGHT: I am pretty sure you’re implying something here. But I’m still puzzling out what.

L: It’s just... up until a little while ago, you’ve been a very busy boy.

LIGHT: That’s not a crime.

L: And now suddenly this change in your attitude. Suddenly a romantic. Did you give a damn for Kiyomi Takada’s feelings? You haven’t called her in a month. And don’t you wonder how Yuri Ohara got over the busjacking you led her into?

LIGHT: I’ve got a lot of friends. Some of them are girls.

L: Most of them.

LIGHT: At least I’ve got friends.

______

OOI: With that, we’re all present.

REM: A handful of idiots.

OOI: Thus I declare this meeting of the Yotsuba group---

TAKAHASHI: Mr. Representative, I have to apologize, but this was a little unexpected and--

OOI: It was unexpected for all of us, Mr. Takahashi.

REM: Because you’re idiots.

TAKAHASHI: I just thought I had until Tuesday to get this sorted out.

OOI: This meeting is not going to be about the financial situation of Tama Hills, Mr. Takahashi.

TAKAHASHI: Oh. Of course.

It’s actually about Kira, of course. They figure out that impossible death conditions won’t take place and default to heart attacks.

Someone points out their goals are getting reached anyway.

SOMEONE: That’s not it. We’re starting to get careless.

REM: You’re only starting now?

They point out that these killings are too obvious and that’s an issue.They wanna do something about it.

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Soichiro and Kitamura talk. Soichiro tells Kitamura about the new building, Kitamura is jealous of the luxury. Soichiro revels in this. And then Kitamura announces that the Kira investigation is going to be quit.

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Matsuda drops Aizawa off at home. He presses Aizawa to move into HQ, but Aizawa still does not want to move in. His wife doesn’t even know he’s on the Kira team.

Matsuda gets called in his function as Misa’s manager and informed she won a contest and gained a movie role. Matsuda obviously has no fucking clue what any of this means and is just concerned that Misa shouldn’t act in porn. The lady calling is audibly confused by the lack of enthusiasm.

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Soichiro and Kitamura discuss more about the closing of the task force. Kitamura is very dismissive about the use of the investigation. Kitamura also reveals that the politicians are being blackmailed by Kira to cancel the investigation. Soichiro is appalled.

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Light found out the link to Yotsuba. They treat this as if they’d always known Kira can kill through means other than heart attacks, even though in the manga that was a big reveal. RIP.

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Higuchi and Shimura in the elevator.

SHIMURA: I’ve been meaning to talk to you, Kyousuke.

HIGUCHI: Oh really?

SHIMURA: About our weekend project.

HIGUCHI: What’s with it?

HATORI: Even if you succeed in getting the police to stop their investigations, this L is never going to stop.

HIGUCHI: Maybe not... but.... I don’t know how we’re supposed to get to him. He might be one of the world’s top detectives, but nobody has ever seen his face before and nobody knows his name.

SHIMURA: And if we had those two things, our... friend could do the rest, right?

HIGUCHI: Yeah.

SHIMURA: Then let’s get out own detective. L is not the only player on the market. Let’s get another detective to find out what we need to know.

HIGUCHI: I like that.

SHIMURA: Gerald Coil. He’s not cheap, but he knows what he’s doing. Let’s put him on the L case. If we get rid of L, we won’t have any more problems.

HIGUCHI: Do that.

________

Soichiro informs the task force of Kitamura’s decision. Everyone except for Aizawa agrees to quit. L tells him to decide right now, even though he wants time to think. When Aizawa hesitates, L wants to fire him, but Watari chimes in as he does in the manga. L then asks Aizawa to talk in private.

________

Higuchi and Hatori are golfing.

HIGUCHI: Good blow, Mr. Hatori.

HATORI: My friends call me Harry.

HIGUCHI: Your jaunty golf friends?

HATORI: Well, in that case it’d be you, Kyousuke.

They talk about some golf terms as they play, no idea what that means.

HATORI: Now we’re almost at the goal.

HIGUCHI: Thanks for the heads-up, I’m not much of a golf player.

HATORI: Well, who’s able to afford that anyway? This field is top league. Most golf players have to earn their money abroad.

HIGUCHI: It has to cost a fortune to be a member in a golf club like this.

HATORI: Well, there’s also candidates who are simply the son of the boss, even if he was never married to their mother.

More golf talk. Higuchi expresses surprise that it’s only the two of them.

HATORI: I wanted to talk to you in private. About our... secret helper.

HIGUCHI: What about him?

HATORI: It’s a quite intense form of insider business. And it costs human lives.

HIGUCHI: Business is war.

HATORI: And we’re playing the nuclear bombshell card. We’re using... I don’t know, black magic, to get rid of our rivals. That’s going to have a price, I know it. Listen, Kyousuke, I... I want out. I don’t want to do this anymore. It isn’t right.

HIGUCHI: You know what isn’t right? For you to become boss of the marketing department when you’ve just graduated college. Just because your mother is fucking the company president. You know what you signed up for, Mr. Hatori. You could barely believe your luck as you could announce 20% growth for your department, despite that pathetic ad campaign for Space Land theme park.

HATORI: I understand. Well, I thank you for your honesty. I came to you first because you hardly mince words.

HIGUCHI: You haven’t talked to anyone else yet?

HATORI: Not yet, no, I---

HIGUCHI: Okay, listen. I understand what’s on your mind. Maybe we’ve gone a little too far, maybe... we can take a little break. Talk about it. Let’s keep this conversation among ourselves for now. I’ll bring it up at the next meeting, Mr. Hatori.

HATORI: My friends call me Harry.

HIGUCHI: ... of course.

________

L encourages Aizawa to quit for his family, even if Aizawa is still hesitating. L tells him he needs 110% from his team. Aizawa calls Ukita his best friend here, bringing him up as something he already sacrificed. L says he can’t let Aizawa add weight to his conscience too (by dying). Aizawa accuses him of having no conscience and storms out.

_________

Hatori sitting down at the golf club bar alone, Higuchi already left. He’s having a whiskey. Takahashi is on the phone.

TAKAHASHI: Harry. What can I do for you?

HATORI: Hey Takahashi. That... thing we talked about. I... I, uh, talked to someone else from the meetings. He’ll bring it up in the next session.

TAKAHASHI: So I shouldn’t say anything.

HATORI: Let him talk first, then support him. It’s going to look like it’s happening without coordination. I’ll also support it, and then we’ll have 3 votes. Ooi is going to remain neutral, as the meeting leader. That means we’ll have enough votes to cast doubt on the whole operation.

TAKASHI: Okay, so I’ll stay put and wait first.

HATORI: You can definitely do it. Later.

TAKASHI: Wait, who did you even talk to?

But Hatori already hung up. He starts coughing soon after. Coughing turns into a collapse. He dies.

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L informs Soichiro that Gerald Coil was hired to find him and also that that’s him. Soichiro finds the double identity thing morally questionable, due to being a trap. L is unimpressed. Also L wants to bug the Yotsuba building.

________

At Misa’s movie shoot. Misa refuses the kiss, as in the manga.

MISA: I have a reputation, you know. A brand.

DIRECTOR (angry): A-ha. And this is just a movie!! In reality, you’re not an angel!! And Hideki doesn’t even fancy girls in reality either!!

MISA (chuckles darkly): I’ll believe that.

So... here we have our canon gay character for the drama, done for a homophobic joke. Woohoo. The director continues to be displeased with Misa as an amateur actress and wants to talk to her manager.

_________

Inside Yotsuba, Matsuda justifies entering the building by being Misa’s manager. Arguing in the background, between a man and a woman. The woman rushes off to the lady’s restroom. The man, with a heavy French accent, tries to excuse her behaviour. This distracts the lady from the reception long enough for Matsuda to slip away.

________

L and Soichiro still argue about ethics, especially in light of L’s coworkers being criminals. Wedy is called Wendy here and Aiber is called Ivor, do NOT ask me why, I have no answers.

The poor Yotsuba secretary tries to mediate between Wendy and Ivor by following Wendy into the lady’s room to deliver a message from Ivor. Wendy, however, is not in the lady’s room anymore.

She now notices that they are intruders and calls Namikawa. Namikawa does not take it seriously. He runs into Matsuda after the phonecall. Matsuda offers Misa as image girl for Yotsuba to him.

_________

Wendy and Ivor are placing bugs and cameras. Wendy and Ivor call each other ‘babe’. Ivor still has the hideous French accent. He also... caused a minor fire as distraction for them. Neat, Ivor.

_________

Matsuda informs everyone that he got Misa an interview at Yotsuba. He had no idea they were already bugging the building. Wendy casually thanks him for giving them more time for being in the building. Matsuda is shocked to find Wendy and Ivor are part of the team.

The cameras are now operational and they can watch today’s meeting live.

OOI: Gentlemen, let’s begin.

#death note #light yagami #l lawliet #kyosuke higuchi #arayoshi hatori #audio drama translations

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peggysousfan · 5 years

Text

Agent Carter An Au Series

Here is chapter 17! A lot of it recaps the show but there are some pieces that put the Au and show together. And some Peggy and Daniel at the end ;) Enjoy!!

Peggy's POV:

Since Dooley sent me home for the day, I got to the Automat for some supper and wait for Mr. Jarvis. I know Daniel will be working late today. what with the break in the Stark case, so we won't be able to eat together one last time. And since Mr. Jarvis hasn't arrived yet, I don't have Stephanie with me. I asked him to keep her at his home until our nightly adventure was over with; I don't want Steph anywhere near Howard and the drama he has created with his deadly inventions. Once I finish dinner I go outside and wait.

"Come on, Mr. Jarvis. A penguin could get here faster..." I've been waiting for at least ten minutes. And Angise has not given up on trying to get me to live at this Griffith Hotel For Women. She bangs on the window to get my attention.

"I found one." She says, but I know which one it is. And I can't live there.

"I'm late for my appointment." I says, not looking towards her.

"It has its own bathroom!"

"I-I have no idea what you're saying."

"Don't make me come out there," She threatens. Oh bloody hell!

"Angie I really must-

"Woman only. A family community for modern female professionals. Apartment for rent. 550 square ft, furnished, full bath, high floors, quiet building. Security assured." She reads the advertisement from the paper. "Close proximity to the Lexington Avenue local isle. Breakfast upon request. Paradise or what.

"That sounds perfect but-

"The only thing that could possibly make it better is if you lived next to me, Oh wait, you would! 3C if you need a cup of sugar." God I wish I could, I really really do. The apartment sounds incredible and Angie is a very nice person, but I don't want her to be in the crossfire if anything were to go wrong; I already have to worry about Stephanie and Daniel. I lie to he and say I wouldn't make a very good neighbor because she thinks shes the problem; but shes not. And above all, I can't leave my daughter behind. I look out the window, and finally, Jarvis has arrived. I say goodbye to Angie and tell her I will see her later, but I know shes upset. However, there's simply no easy option here...

"Ms. Carter."

"Mr. Jarvis." He starts driving, and for a few moments everything is silent. "How was Stephanie doing today?"

"Oh she was quite... well." Oh no. Hes hesitating.

"What happened?" I asked, worry creeping in at the edge of my voice.

"Oh no, nothings happened. Shes perfectly fine, Ms. Carter. Its just..." He takes a short pause as if thinking of what to say. "Well shes just been, how you...fussy. And unbelievably so. We've done everything we could possibly think of, but-"

"Nothing seems to calm her down?" He nods. "Yes, she does that sometimes. Mostly its because she wants a specific person to hold her and give her attention. You've done nothing wrong, Mr. Jarvis. Steph is just...stubborn."

"Well it seems you will have eventful years when she is of age..."

"Oh please no. Let me enjoy the little things first!" I say, "Besides, she'll go back and give her mother that headache, not me."

"Is that not you, Ms. Carter?" He asks hesitantly.

"What?! Mr. Jarvis, Stephanie is my niece not my-"

"I beg to differ, respectfully of course." I whip my head to look at him. But he speaks before I can. "She has your fighting spirit, attitude, and intelligence. However...I fear she has her father's strength."

"And you know who that is?"

"I may have an idea as to whom he may be. But that is not any of my concern why you wish to keep her true parents identity a secret." I start to relax and look away. "I will never tell another soul, Ms. Carter. Your secret is safe with me."

"Thank you, Mr. Jarvis." For the rest of the ride to Mr. McFee's house, the car is filled with silence. That is until the 'Captain America Adventure Program' starts. I let it play for a few moments, and the cut it off. "Who writes this rubbish?" Jarvis says he enjoys it, but is rather impressed by the real thing. Its a shame they don't actually use it. "Are you trying to butter me up Mr. Jarvis?" He says hes not.

"I'm only pleased to receive your call." I tell him he is faster than a train and compliment the new car. He said he did dispose of the other, but that it was a waste. We didn't have much of a choice to keep it, it was used at the site of a crime scene. I ask him to hurry along because Thompson is very persuasive in the interrogation room; especially with ninnies like Van Ert.

Daniel's POV:

Its been about 2 hours since Peggy left, and already Thompson broke him, and our stick. So all the information we have is Van Ert was working with a Leet Branis to make the molecular nitramene bombs, with Howard Stark's formula. The used a guy who worked at the Daisy Clover Milk company to transport their products. So now we have to find Branis and McFee, which will hopefully lead us to Stark...Although I kind of don't want to find him. I know he and Peggy are friends,and that he was a major contributor to helping the Allies win. It doesn't make sense for him to go off and sell weapons to the enemies.

As I sit in my chair and write all the information down, Dooley starts talking. Apparently Immigration has no record of this guy Branis, and Krisminksi says it could be an alias. But Thompson and his two sense says that if it is, Van Ert doesn't know it. Great, this feels like an insane dramatic puzzle. He turns to me and ask about Daisy Clovers pay roll

"I'm on hold with Daisy Clover payroll."I say

"Well its not like he was the brains of the operation anyway." Thompson says

"More like the Krisminski of the operation." I jab. Krisminski's a dumb ass.

"Jokes on you, peg-leg, I don't even know how to drive a truck." What? That not even what I was saying. Idiot. Chief is going hard on pinning this on Stark. Even though Van Ert never met him, Dooley says he can have go betweens in between go betweens. Like hes some sort of snake; which he probably is. I finally get off hold and get McFee's address. Now we're getting somewhere. We all head out and go after McFee.

Peggy's POV:

When we arrive at McFees house, I send Jarvis away and tell him I don't need his help and that I have my own ride home. I sneak into the yard and towards the truck; and all the bombs are there. I make my way to the front of the house and walk in. Carefully I step in and look for McFee and Branis; but unfortunately the old floor boards give me away. McFee grabs his gun and charges towards me, but I kick it away and fight him. And of course, with my luck, that damn radio show is one; which only infuriates me more. He pins me against the wall and I break a glass over his head. We struggle more and I elbow his inner arm and throw his into a table. And of course, he passes out.

"Hello? Mr. McFee?" But still no response. "Why does this keep happening?" I ask myself. I drag his body into a chair and handcuff him to it, but while I was distracted, Branis slipped outside and tried to start the truck. I pull out my gun and aim it at his head. "Get out!" I order and he does. I slam him into the truck and keep the gun to his temple. "Car trouble?" I ask, and Mr. Jarvis answers

"Nothing that can't be fixed."

"What the HELL are you doing here?" He explains that hes here to help, as any good butler would, without being asked. He sabotaged the vehicle and I tell him to fix it. The sooner its fixed, the sooner I can turn this in and get home to see my little girl. "Where are Stark's inventions?" I pull out his voice communicator and hold it to his throat.

"I want protection."

"The SSR will take you in, provided you say something interesting. Right Bloody now." He say nothing, instead Jarvis chimes in and asks bout Leviathan. Branis says its a who, not a what. Lovely, because thats not vague at all. They use to be his employers and he double crossed them. Apparently Leviathan only wanted one thing from Howard, and Branis saw it as an opportunity to make a profit from the rest.

"I. Want. Protection."

"Then start talking."

We get into the truck once its fixed and drive on the road. Jarvis is in the back, Branis is driving, and I'm holding my gun on Branis. Unfortunate McFee got away, but for right now our focus is transporting the bombs. I tell Branis to stop fidgiting and that nothings going to happen; but of course it does. The same man that killed Colleen has jumped on the roof and started to shoot down at us. We fight on the roof and he shots again, hitting the strap and Branis. We continue to fight and I hear a crash. One of the bombs has dropped and cracked. He punches me in the face and I fall down and them look over the roof I see a lake; perfect. I tell Jarvis to grab Branis and jump. I fight off Colleen's killer and stab his hand through the roof.

"This is where I get off." I grab Jarvis and Branis and toss them out of the truck, and then I roll over and jump as well. The truck lands in the lake and BOOM! A bright light flashes and pushes me back; the entire lake is gone. I limp over to Jarvis and notice Branis, dying. His communication device is broken and can't speak. I ask him where Howard's inventions are and ask him to help me beat Leviathan. He draws a heart in the dirt with a string through it. Dammit.

"Wheres the car?" I ask.

"I believe its that way. I think we should go retrieve it immediately." Ugh can this day get any worse?

Daniel's POV:

We're almost at Mr. McFees house, when we stop the car and notice him walking on the road...with a chair handcuffed to him. Great, another mystery. We get him out of the cuffs and starts driving again, that is until theres an enormously bright light blinding our eyes. Thompson, whos driving in front of me, goes faster, and so do I. When we reach the sourse of the light, the lake is completely dried up; not a drop left. And not only that, but we find Branis's dead body at the scene. While the others go investigate that, I notice something shiny in the road.

"Sousa! What the hell are you doing?" CHief asks. I walk over to them and show the key I found. "Good find. Lets go check it out."

Peggy's POV:

When we reach the car I sigh in relief. Jarvis notices my leg and says he can patch me up. I tell him to wait, I need to see my daughter. When we enter the house, I limp to my room and Jarvis hands her over.

"Oh poppet!" She starts to fuss but then stops and snuggles against me, gurgling her baby talk."You have to say mummy. Can you do that?" She looks at me with those bright blue eyes and smiles. "Say mummy." She moves her lips and the words are inaudible, if they count as words at all,and she starts to laugh... and so do I. I love my little girl so much, my heart can't take it.

"Here you are Ms. Carter" He hands over her pacifier and he takes it gladly. I look at him and he bends down to stitch the gash on my leg.

"You're quite good at that."

"Yes. Mr. Stark's zippers are under a considerable strain." He ties it off and cuts the thread. "You're very fortunate you know."

"I missed the bone by three inches."

"Thats not what I meant."

"Then look me in the eye and say what you meant." Steph wiggles around in my arms and starts to grab at my hair.

"You're very fortunate that I ignored your instructions"

"Oh you're so right." I say as I pull her hands from my hair. "How I managed to stay alive before I meant you I have no idea." He goes in to give a speech about how my line of work requires support, but I tell him I can't be surrounded by those I love if I'm only putting them in danger. Thats why I'm trying to find a permanent home, I don't want Daniel or the Jarvis's to get hurt. Thats why I can't live near or with either of them. Then that leaves the question with Stephanie. He has a point though, I can't exactly distance myself from the world I wish to protect; but its so hard. I have to make the world right, if not for myself then for Steph. He says I can't be as successful in my goal if I don't open up to others and allow them to help me...and maybe hes right. When he finishes my stitches, I take Steph and head to Daniel's apartment. This is our last night there...

Daniels POV:

After I give Dooley the key I found I head home. I am so tired right now its ridiculous. Not only is it late, but i know Peggy is already asleep by now, and its her last night there; now I won't even get to say a proper goodbye. I open the apartment door and hear the shower going, and theres food on the table from the Automat.

"Peggy?" I call out. I hear Steph start crying and go into the bedroom. "Peg?" Still no answer. She must be in the shower. I pick up the baby and head to the table to eat. Shes so adorable its ridiculous. She squirms around all over the place and plays with the little doll I juts gave her, and she loves it.I hear a groan and turn around. "Peggy? You okay?" She comes out, dressed in her night gown, and walks over to me and Steph; or limps?

"I'm fine." She says. She leans over my shoulder and steals a bite of my cake.

"Hey! Thats mine!" She shrugs her shoulders and sits down on the couch. "Peggy, are you sure you're okay? You look like you're limping." and shes more quiet than normal.

"Mhm." Okay, now I know somethings wrong.

"Peg. Why are you still up? Its 1:30 in the morning."

"I know, I just...wanted to see you." I pick up the baby and sit next to her on the couch, with one brow raised. She sighs and shakes her head."I-" I sit, patiently, waiting for an answer, and grab her hand. "I uhm, was just given some advice recently, and I think I should listen to it."

"Okay..."

"I have a request, and I'm afraid to ask it. I need help and you're the only person I trust, Daniel." I nod my head and encourage her to keep talking. "I-I, uh, was-" Before she finishes her sentence, the power goes out. Damn New York.

"Here, hold Steph, I'll get us some light." I walk to the kitchen and grab some candles and light them. "There, that should work for now." I place one on the table and two on the coffee table by the couch."Peg?" Shes gone. "Peggy." She comes back and sits on the couch. "Wheres Steph?"

"I put her to sleep. Shes had quite the day. As have we all." I hum in agreement. "Daniel...I can't stay with my friends forever, and I can't stay here... But I can't take Steph with me anywhere else I go. At least for now."

"Peg. What are you saying...?" She looks away from me and I can see the tears rolling down her cheek. "Hey.." I wipe them away and hold her face in my hands. "Whats going on? Whats got you so upset?"

"Can she stay with you?" She sniffles. "When you aren't at work. Can- Can Stephanie live here with you..." I back away, slightly, in complete shock, and shake my head.

"Peggy.. you can't-Peg."

"I-I don't have any other choice. I can't stay there with my friends, and I can't sty here because-" She looks away and takes another deep breath. Shes hiding something. "Because I don't want to put you in danger. Or Stephanie. Shes just a baby, Daniel. She can hardly speak and walk, let alone defend herself or cry for help if someone-"

"Okay okay okay, just breathe. Look at me. Take a deep breath. And breath." She was starting to hyperventilate. "Think about this, Peg. Really think about it." She shakes her head and more tears fall.

"I have. I'm taking the advice and allowing people to help me and...and be involved more in my life. And this is how I do that; at least for now." I place my hand on her shoulder and give it a squeeze. "I'll pick her up from her sitters, and come here, with you, or stay until you come home and then you will have her for the rest of the night. And in the mornings I will come by to see you both and take her back so you and I can go to work."

"Peggy, thats a lot of work to do. How long do you think you can keep that up?"

"I don't know. I just...I need this to work until its over."

"Till whats over?" At first she hesitates, then answers.

"Till this case with Howard is solved. Then...I'll figure the rest out when I get there." I pull her in for a hug and she hold on tightly. When she lets go I kiss her on the forehead, and she smiles. I take her to my room and she lays down. "Daniel? Can you stay with us? Just until I fall asleep?"

"Yeah, sure." I sit on the edge of the bed and she curls up to me on my chest, just like she did before, and I don't move away. She lays close, as if afraid of something, and closes her eyes to fall asleep. I don't know what it is thats bothering her so much, but whatever it is needs to stop being such a pain in the ass. I hate seeing her in pain and fear. Maybe she'll open up more and tell me, but right now I'm content on her sleeping it off.

#peggysous #peggy carter #daniel sousa #Peggy x Daniel #agent carter #agent carter series #au fanfic #fanfiction

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brothersgrim · 5 years

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Day 90: Money (For Taker, how does Taker handle his money? Does he have a lot or a little? Is he worried about it or is it non concern. If he makes money, what motivates him and how does he use it. Also, what does money mean to him?)

100 DAYS OF HEADCANONS:

He’s actually pretty frugal. Kind of has to be. He’s running his own business, after all. He has to worry about expenses, and bills, and all sorts of things. It took him a while to get the hang of it. His parents spoke to him about it openly when he was young; no point in hiding such things from their boys, they always thought. But then Paul took over. Unlike JT and Iza, he did not view the Undertaker - then Adam - as smart. He was a tool. Tools do not think. Tools do what they are told and nothing more. He doesn’t need to worry about money. Leave that to Paul. Leave everything to Paul.

So he doesn’t actually learn about doing his own finances until he’s thirty-something. The good news about coming from a very small town is that there’s a lot of locally owned businesses, and a lot of really nice people, so there were people he could ask. He ended up learning basically all of it from Jeb down at the rattler; still has a bar napkin covered in scribbled notes tucked away in one of his work folders.

The only ‘positive’ of his life post-fire is that he’s not really one for material goods. Doesn’t spend a lot of money on gadgets or whatever. His phone is an old flip he’s had for years; it works fine. No need to replace it. He’s the kind of person who always shuts the lights off when he leaves. TV’s probably the one that’s been there since he was young; the newest appliances are going to be the oven/stove in the kitchen and the cremation oven, since he gets a bit paranoid about making sure those are up to code. He has spent a fair bit on tattoos, and n his bikes - though that’s mitigated by the fact that he maintains them himself, and sometimes sells the ‘project bikes’ for a profit after he’s fixed them up, but by and large, his biggest expenses are on food - most of which he buys locally at home, from the farms, reducing cost greatly - and healthcare - which he doesn’t need nearly as much of, if any, when he’s dead, as he has been for most of his life. So, yeah. Bikes and ink is what he spends most of his excess on, when he has it.

How much he has really depends on the timeline. Right after he cuts Paul out of his life, before Kane shows up again, he’s flat broke and teetering on the edge of debt. Managers get a cut of their client’s pay. That’s how it works. Paul was a manager, and, as I said, horrible, and took advantage of the fact that he had an inexperienced unaware young man who literally has to do what he is told in order to take basically all of the money. He was living the high life. Taker got only enough to keep him interested. “It’s not much, boy, but it’s something.” As if it ever mattered what Taker thought. “Might help keep this business afloat. The last thing we have of your poor, poor parents.” … As Paul signs off on his new car. As Paul buys his own house. New suits. The more of a draw the young Undertaker created, the more he got paid. The more he got paid, the bigger a cut Paul took. ‘Only fair’.

He eventually gets rid of Paul, as you know. It is by far the best decision of his life. Makes everything better. It just doesn’t necessarily make it easier. From a certain point of view, his life before had been easier. Didn’t have to think for himself (couldn’t). In that sense, it was ‘easier’. There’s a lot he has to take care of once Paul’s gone. He also doesn’t have a lot to his name, and he has a business to run. There’s a lot that goes into it, a lot of expenses to cover - it’s one stress headache after another. And this is before we get into the forced revisiting of his trauma, Kane coming back, all the shit in the WWF at the time, and so on and so forth. It was a rough time, and also arguably the worst off he’s been financially. Thankfully, he’s able to come back from it. He has to work his ass off, but he manages.

Usually, he’s able to stay afloat with a bit extra. He’s not wealthy by any means, but he gets by. Does what he can. Helps that he usually doesn’t have to pay bail. Helps even more when Kane’s staying with him. Two incomes (Kane’s from fighting; a bit to bolster), two sets of hands to run the home, two sets of hands to tackle chores.

The only time he’s really struggling after that is during the era of the Two Man Power Trip. Kane’s arm gets broken five times with increasing severity. Medical bills are expensive. And so many in a row… It’s rough. He struggles. He probably has to sell a few bikes and take some fights he shouldn’t have, even more so once Kane leaves. But he managed. He always manages (even if it’s another straw on the camel’s already broken back that leads to a long-awaited mental break). He’ll work his ass off to stay out of debt, leading us into the next point:

What does money mean to him? It means, mostly, keeping his business afloat. Keeping the home. His family’s charge, his parents’ legacy, his ‘safe space’. It’s his home. He had to fight to get it back from Paul and you’re damn right he’ll fight to keep it. It’s somewhere he can lay his head, keep his things, and relax as much as he allows himself to. Money means he can take care of Kane, and anyone else he’s pulled under his wing. Therapy is expensive. Extra food is expensive. But sometimes it’s necessary. Money for him means freedom. He doesn’t have to rely on anyone anymore. He can travel on his own dime, doesn’t need to fight if he doesn’t want to, can do what he wants. He can buy his bikes, buy his ink. Do the things that make him happy. It means a lot, but it’s not the most important thing to him (that’s Kane. It’s always Kane).

#blackasteriia #&& reburied; ooc #&& necronimcon; deadman headcanons #&& whispers from the crypt; deadman answers

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something-tofightfor · 6 years

Text

Neon Lights - Epilogue (part 2)

Pairing: Ryan Brenner x Reader

Word Count: 6198

Rating: M (language)

Summary: What happened to Ryan after he caught the train to St. Louis?

Parts 1-11 and the first part of the epilogue can be found on my 500 follower event masterlist (at the bottom of my main Masterlist page).

Thank you for reading. Please enjoy.

It’s long. Oops.

Tagging: @ooo-barff-ooo @agent-bossypants @likethetailofacomet

POV - Ryan

Ryan had managed to fall into a restless sleep after bracing himself in the corner of the train car, but he’d woken up after only an hour or so in pain and quite cold. Digging in his pack, he’d found a bottle of ibuprofen, dry swallowing three of them at once and focusing on his guitar case. My wrist is broken. There’s no way it isn’t. Even in the dim light, he could see the bruises creeping up his palm beneath his thumb, feel the swelling of the tissues in his hand, the stiffness of his fingers. Nothing I can do about it til St. Louis. While waiting for the medication to kick in, Ryan had reached out, using one hand to unlock his guitar case and pull out the recorder, turning it over in his hand. Without thinking, he’d turned it on and pressed record, taking a deep breath before speaking. “Hey, you.” He sniffed, shaking his head. “I screwed up. I screwed up bad.” He continued for a few minutes, venting his frustrations into the frigid night. If I can’t talk to her directly, I can pretend.

As morning broke, Ryan had prepared himself to jump from the train, easing his pack and then his guitar back onto his shoulders. Though it threw him slightly off balance, he’d tucked his injured hand into the space between the buttons of his jacket to stabilize it as he’d exited the train, teeth gritted as he snuck across the rail yard and each step jostled it. Look for the tower. He peered around, eyes wide open and when he’d seen the metal structure Kenny had mentioned he headed for it, a determined set to his lips.

His friend had been waiting for him next to a dark green SUV, and Ryan wasted no time in asking Kenny for help with removing the items from his back, getting them placed safely into the backseat. Kenny’s green eyes looked the younger man over carefully, and Ryan offered a sad smile before asking to be taken to an Urgent Care. “Think I broke my playin’ hand, Ken.” With a slump of his shoulders, the man had agreed, driving Ryan to the closest medical facility.

The wrist was broken, an X-ray confirmed it, but it wasn’t a bad break, and the doctor told him that if everything went well, the cast that was being put on could come off in roughly six weeks, followed by a few more weeks of splinting to ensure complete recovery. He’d felt his heart drop at the diagnosis, even though Ryan had known that it was coming, but it wasn’t until the wrist had been immobilized in a stiff cast that it truly hit him: he couldn’t play guitar. “You’ll notice that once the wrist starts to heal, you’ll be able to bend the fingers more, Mr. Brenner.” The doctor was kind, carefully manipulating Ryan’s fingers, which were poking out of the end of the cast. “Be sure to at least try to move them as often as possible, keep them limber.”

“I’m a guitar player, sir.” Ryan had spoken quietly, eyes locked on his arm. “I need my hands to make my livin’.” The doctor had placed a hand on Ryan’s shoulder, squeezing gently.

“You need to take a few weeks off, son. It’ll do you good.” Would it? Ryan had swiped his debit card to pay for the visit, shaking his head at the fact that he could afford the few hundred dollars for the initial payment, and headed back out to the car where Kenny was waiting. He wasn’t about to attempt to pay for the pain pills that the doctor had prescribed, and so his friend had driven them to a Walmart, where Ryan had loaded up on over the counter medication, grabbed a six pack of beer, and purchased a new phone. Not that it matters. Who am I going to call?

He’d been racking his brain and trying to remember your number, but though he could remember the last seven digits, he didn’t know the area code. All he knew was that you were from the east coast somewhere; you’d mentioned in passing that it was why you felt so at home by the water, why the cold weather didn’t bother you, but there were so many options that he was overwhelmed, and he knew that there was no way he’d ever figure out the right three numbers. Why didn’t I ever ask where she was from?

So he talked to you through the recorder, the days passing slowly with the assistance of some leftover pain pills from Maria getting her wisdom teeth removed, telling you stories and recording a few bars of lyrics at a time. Though unable to play, Ryan was writing up a storm, the lyrics flowing from him and onto paper, onto the memory card, waiting for the day when he’d be able to pick up the guitar and strum again like he wanted to.

Two weeks in, Ryan had started performing with Kenny, who was an accomplished musician himself. The gig that had been promised was at a local bar, Tuesday and Friday nights, and thanks to the recorder, Ryan had been able to play his music for Kenny to listen to and learn. It was weird for him to sit idly and simply sing along, but Ryan slowly got used to it and became more comfortable gripping a microphone with his healthy hand, leaning in focusing on singing rather than playing the guitar. Without the guitar in his hands, though, Ryan didn’t look down as much, instead focusing on the people that were watching him perform, taking in the smiles on their faces and the look in their eyes as they appreciated what he was showing them. He still closed his eyes often, but he was looking at the people in front of him much more closely.

He always sang as if you were standing right in front of him, gazing at him with those big, wide eyes, your lips parted slightly as you focused on him - focused on his voice, focused on the performance, but every time he opened his eyes and you weren’t there, it was a shot to the chest again, just knowing that there was nothing he could to to reach out, to simply let you know that he was doing OK - to tell you that when he’d been hurt, you were the first thing - the first person he’d thought of. So he told the recorder everything, pulling it out in quiet moments on Kenny and Maria’s porch, talking to it as if it were truly you, right there, in the palm of his hand, which, aside from some 60-odd hours in Vegas, was the only way he’d ever really had you: through a speaker and a screen. It shouldn’t be like this.

By the time he and Kenny had played a few times they’d established a healthy dynamic between the two of them, taking cues from each other - and Ryan actually felt content. It was good to be on a stage, and though they played a lot of covers, a lot of newer songs, they always sprinkled in a few that Ryan felt at home singing, always played “Southbound”, always ended with something he’d played for you in Vegas - Johnson or Croce or Seger. It was hard, thinking of you and your honest reactions to him every night he played, but it felt right - and it kept him at his best.

He wore your shirt at least one night a week, calling it his good luck charm since he’d had it on the night the bar owner had asked if they would want to play three nights a week since Ryan and Kenny had started drawing larger crowds than usual, and the man liked the extra profits. Not only were they making money gigging, but the tip money that was coming in seemed almost unreal to Ryan. It wasn’t quite Vegas tip money, but he’d quickly made back the money he spent on the Urgent Care trip, which was a relief.

By the fourth week, Ryan was unable to keep his hands in his lap, and he’d convinced Kenny and Maria to stop worrying about him. After gingerly playing a few songs in their living room with only mild discomfort, Ryan took his guitar to the bar with him for the first time in St. Louis. He was a little clumsy, a little off - but it felt good to get back to his routine, felt good to have the body of the guitar resting on his knee again as he played backup to Kenny. And the best part? His fingers didn’t hurt anymore, though his wrist still ached dully for the majority of the day and even worse the days following gig nights.

Taking a break and stepping outside to breathe, Ryan stared up at the star-lit February sky, hands loose by his sides, the fingers of his right hand flexing. What are you doin’ right now? “You’ve got a gift, Ryan.” He was startled out of his thoughts by a female voice from his left, and he turned to see a middle aged woman - a redhead with kind features - standing a few feet away, her arms crossed over her chest. “Your friend Kenny sent me out here to talk to you, I know his wife, Maria.” About what? He frowned but nodded, watching as she stepped closer to him and reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone. “I’d like to hire you.”

Ryan had listened in disbelief as she’d explained that she and her husband were looking for a vocal coach for their daughter, who she’d shown him via a picture on her phone - and, once his hand had healed adequately, someone to teach her to play the guitar, too. “I’m not a professional, ma’am.” Ryan swallowed and shook his head, heart pounding. “I just play for fun and I sing because I like it.” The woman shrugged, closing her eyes and when she opened them, she was looking at Ryan as if him saying no would destroy her.

“My daughter just wants to learn. She wants to do something she likes, and we want to encourage her.” She sighed. “I don’t want her to learn from someone that’s going to fill her head with the idea that she needs to sing what’s popular, or be absolutely perfect to be good.” The woman tentatively reached out, touching Ryan’s shoulder. “You’ve got a voice that’s meant to be heard, and if you can help my daughter find hers - find out if she’s got one too, it’ll be worth it. We’ve seen you and Kenny perform three times now, and you just get better and better every night.”

He’d agreed, after telling the woman that he didn’t know how long he’d be in town for, but she’d waved him off dismissively, telling him that even a few weeks would be great. Starting the next Monday, Ryan had gone to the woman’s - whose name was Alicia - home, met her husband, and met their fourteen year old daughter Melissa. The girl was eager to learn, eager to listen to Ryan’s instruction, eager to watch him play the guitar - especially when he’d explained that he was re-learning to play too, since he’d broken his hand.

The time with the little girl had reminded Ryan of Lia, of how much finding and developing a talent could change a person’s behavior, and though they only met twice a week, Ryan looked forward to the time spent with Melissa and her parents, foraging an easy friendship with the adults. He never mentioned the fact that he was a drifter, though he assumed that they knew since they knew Kenny and Maria, but as the weeks passed and Melissa improved, Ryan did, too. The ache in his wrist faded almost completely, and as that happened, he was able to bend it a little more, fingers more easily finding the strings. He still wasn’t able to completely lose himself like he had before, but it was progress and it was important.

Between playing at the bar and teaching Melissa, Ryan focused on the future. He didn’t mind staying in St. Louis, didn’t mind the people, and actually made a few new friends, but as comfortable as he was, he knew that the time would come for him to leave. Slipping on the ice had been a wake up call for him, but it was the feeling of isolation - specifically being cut off from someone that truly cared for him on a deep level - that he’d experienced upon realizing that his phone was missing that had stuck with him in a way that being alone never had before.

There had been plenty of women at the bar and around town that introduced themselves to him, asking if he’d be interested in having a drink or seeing a movie or going out, and though a part of him - the rational part - had wanted to agree, simply because there was a very slim (if any) chance he’d ever find you again, Ryan had always politely turned them down with a quick smile and a shake of his head, fingers running through his hair as he thanked them for the offer.

If they were that bold with him after simply watching him sing, what were they like with other men? He’d never felt like that with you, remembering back to your genuine interest in his music before him, your hesitancy when asking him about his prior relationships, his own fear that you’d tell him you were seeing someone, that he was merely a distraction. But you weren’t and he wasn’t and when he’d bared his soul to you the following morning as he knelt over you, fighting with everything in him to keep his body from pressing against yours even though it had been all he’d wanted, it had been the truth - and he was glad that he’d said the words. ‘You deserve more. You deserve every night, not a night or two in a hotel room’. He still believed that, but as each day passed in Missouri, he realized just how much he wanted to be the one to give you those nights, and his days, too - and it had taken him far too long to admit it.

He loved traveling, loved seeing new places and meeting new people, but like when Cowboy had died without warning, without anyone knowing what had happened for days, Ryan knew that he was in dangerous territory each time he looked at his casted wrist. A broken bone in his arm was one thing, but what happened if he hit his head? What if he broke a leg or injured his back? There were benefits to being alone, sure, and Ryan had reaped them for many years, but the more he thought about it, the more value he saw in being with someone, being in a place where people knew him - with someone that got him.

As the days passed Ryan realized that there were two different kinds of people, and he was almost desperate to figure out which category he truly fell into. People like Georgie and the friends he stayed with in Chicago were always going to live life on the road, they’d never settle in one place, never be happy enough to stay. People like Kenny and Maria - and even Virginia had found reasons to stay in one place or another, found a purpose in their life, something that had stood out clearly to them. Even Jackie fell into the latter category, as someone whose priorities had changed dramatically very quickly, but she’d never looked back, instead choosing to wholeheartedly focus on what was essential to her: her family. Who’s my family? Do I need one? Though your face flashed in his mind as he thought, he shook his head, pushing the thought to the side. Can’t think about what you can’t control, Brenner.

By the time his cast came off in March, replaced with a rigid brace that he was only supposed to wear while sleeping and he’d forked over another $200 out of his account for a copay, Ryan had made up his mind. While he wasn’t going to leave St. Louis right away, he wasn’t staying, either. Being landlocked didn’t appeal to him, and he was itching to continue his journey east. He poured over maps, knowing that there were a ton of big cities within reach as soon as he reached the eastern seaboard, but he didn’t want just any city, he wanted one where he’d feel comfortable, but not be overcrowded or feel swallowed by everything around him.

The beginning of April brought good weather to St. Louis, and Ryan and Kenny informed the bar owner that Ryan would be leaving, which resulted in a solid week of them playing nights in order for people to come and enjoy them for a few final days. Ryan’s last lessons with Melissa showed immense progress, the girl beaming from ear to ear as she played for her parents, and as he’d walked out of their home for the final time, Ryan felt pride that he’d been able to teach someone something meaningful, leaving a lasting impression on someone because of his talent - hopefully encouraging them to continue honing their own.

As he said goodbye to Kenny and Maria, heading out and toward the trains, Ryan had felt free - he felt focused, knowing where he was heading, and he would have been lying if he’d said he wasn’t excited to see what Memphis had to offer, that the feeling of climbing back onto the train, no support on his wrist wasn’t the best one he’d had in months. He let the breeze - still cool, even though it held the promise of true spring - blow over his face as he rode across Missouri and Arkansas and into Tennessee. It was a short ride, and within a few days of leaving St. Louis, he’d established a new routine that included wandering through Memphis and looking for inspiration. Wonder what you’d take pictures of here. He wrote down lyrics, came up with titles for songs, talked to the people he saw on the streets - Memphis was everything he’d imagined it to be, and Ryan was having fun.

His fourth night in the city, Ryan found himself wandering down the street near the Mississippi River’s east bank when he stopped in front of a tattoo shop advertising that they took walk in appointments. He tapped his foot for a few moments, unconsciously rubbing the inside of his right wrist while looking around and then with a grin, turned and walked through the doors of the building. It’s time for a new one.

With a bandage wrapped around his wrist just under an hour later, Ryan made his way back to the bus station, where he’d rented a locker for his things again. As he watched the people move around him, Ryan couldn’t help but smile. This is normal. This is… right. He was jolted out of his thoughts by the ringing of his phone and picked it up, greeting Georgie. After a quick conversation, Ryan rolled his neck, taking a deep breath. While there wasn’t any urgency in the phone call, his friend had wanted to touch base, inviting Ryan to meet up in New York City the last week of May, giving Ryan four weeks to make his way north.

Spending one final night in Memphis, Ryan hopped on a train going east the following morning, taking it as far as Nashville, but after only a few hours in the city, he knew it wouldn’t be a place that he could stay. No matter where he went, there were people like him - playing guitar on the corner, reading poetry on the stoops of their houses… trying to make a go of it. While the city itself was beautiful and lively, Ryan knew that if he stayed, he’d be consumed by it, crushed under the weight of people stepping over him to find their own success, and after less than 24 hours, he was again moving east, the ride between Nashville and Charlotte a two day ordeal.

The closer Ryan got to the coast, the more excited he was. He hadn’t seen the Atlantic ocean in years, and was looking forward to the day that he got to again. Soon. So soon. Charlotte was another short stay - a few days with his friend Natalie and her daughter while Natalie’s husband Jack was somewhere overseas. They weren’t friends from traveling, Ryan had known them as he’d grown up in Virginia, and he’d kept in touch with them throughout the years.

Natalie was a friendly face when he desperately needed one, and having his own room, his own bed, and access to a house that was empty most days was welcome after three months on a futon with Kenny and Maria, no matter how grateful he was to them. Ryan’s relationship with Natalie was easy, and as the days passed - a week of them - he realized that with as much as he wanted to keep traveling, having a routine, having something concrete to look forward to was just as refreshing.

The agreement had always been that when Ryan stopped through and Jack wasn’t home, that he’d help her with things around the house, and so as he finished up the list of things she’d needed, Ryan had told Natalie that he was heading out within the next few days. “You should go home, Ryan. It’s been how long? You said you told your friend to get closure, shouldn’t you do the same?” He’d told her about you, about meeting you in Vegas, about the way that you’d gotten each other, had connected on a mental level before anything physical had happened, and Natalie had heard in his voice that he loved you, something that Ryan hadn’t admitted out loud to himself. “You may not find her there, but you might just find what you’re looking for.”

And so Ryan said goodbye to the two women, hugging both of them tightly before Natalie pressed a brief kiss to his bearded cheek, whispering that she hoped he found something worth having. That ride was another day and a half long, and Ryan slept for much of it, waking up only to assess where he was and to eat. He was tired, and still had just over two weeks until he needed to get to New York and to Georgie, but almost as soon as he got off of the train in Norfolk, Ryan had felt sick to his stomach. This isn’t home. This isn’t my life.

But he knew that when and if you’d gone home, you wouldn’t have half assed it, and so he vowed to himself to stick it out, too. He used the library to find his mother’s grave, to visit her and tell her that he was sorry for running, that he wished he could have done something to keep her safer, that he was hoping that he could make something of himself and eventually make her proud. He sat on the ground, even as it started raining and talked to his mother until he ran out of things to say - telling her about where he’d been and what he’d seen and what he’d done. “But the thing is, Ma… the thing is that in these last 12 years, it’s never been enough. I’ve had some good times, but… nothin’ worth stayin’ for. Nothin’ that made me really feel alive or important.” He frowned, standing and looked out over the water before looking down again at his mother’s grave. “’cept for one thing, Ma. One person.”

Virginia hadn’t felt like home, but Ryan was glad that he’d finally said goodbye to his mother. He felt lighter as he waited for a ride the next morning, opting to hitchhike north to Baltimore instead of taking a train, and once he’d been dropped off in the Inner Harbor area, he immediately set up and began playing. Strumming the guitar put his mind at ease, and Ryan decided that once he’d earned enough for the day, he’d get a cheap motel and figure out what to do next - with his last ten days before heading to New York.

Later that night - fresh seafood in his stomach and feeling clean from a hot shower, Ryan was laying on his back in the bed, staring at the ceiling. He was totally silent, guitar packed in his case, simply thinking, and as the light changed in his motel room and day changed into night, Ryan came to a conclusion: it was time to think about stopping, about leaving the trains behind. He wasn’t old, but he was getting there, and he wasn’t getting the same joy out of being in a different city every few days that he had previously. He’d been perfectly happy working with Melissa and playing in the bar at night with Kenny. “Maybe you’re right.” He finally spoke, rolling onto his side and burying his face in the pillow - scratchy and flat, but more comfortable than a lumpy couch.

Georgie likely wanted to record in New York, and while Ryan was fine with that, it wasn’t what he wanted long term. He wanted to perform - wanted to entertain people - but didn’t need to be told when and where to be, what to play… “This is it.” Ryan sat up, running his hands through his hair. “The last trip.” He sighed, squeezing his eyes shut. He didn’t know where he was going or what he was going to do, but Ryan knew that coming back east had been the right call - ending his travels where they’d started was poetic, and Ryan was ready to find something new, something permanent - something real. He’d get a job, try to find more work teaching or playing weekly like he had with Kenny… whatever he did, he didn’t want to spend hours upon hours in trains anymore, he wanted an actual life - he just needed to decide where.

Ryan felt a weight lifted from his shoulders after making the decision, and he moved quickly to his guitar case and grabbing the recorder out of it along with his room key. It’s time. He slipped out of the room and made his way back to the waterfront, sitting down on a bench and taking a few deep breaths. After a few minutes, Ryan turned the recorder on, holding it close to his mouth. “Hey, you. I made a decision today, and I think you’d be happy for me.” For the next thirty minutes, Ryan talked into the recorder, his voice growing hoarse as he reached the end of what he had to say, swallowing hard.

“And I guess this might be the best thing for me.” He licked his lips, shaking his head. “I think if you were here, you’d be brainstorming ideas with me for where I should go, where I should end up for good - or at least for now.” Ryan sighed. “I hope you’re happy. I hope you’re settled. I hope you found what you’re lookin’ for.” There was another long pause and then Ryan closed his eyes, bowing his head. “I did. And then I lost it.” He sniffed. “I lost you.” Ryan stayed on the bench for a while longer before returning to his room and falling into a fitful sleep, the blankets bunched around his thighs.

The next morning, he made his way back to the waterfront, guitar in hand. He settled in, an easy smile on his face as he began to play. He didn’t sleep in motels again, but over the next three days and nights, Ryan played until his fingers hurt and his voice gave out; he wanted to make the most of his final days as a traveler, be sure that his decision was the right one. He still talked to you, but only in his head, knowing that while he still cared - still loved you, he had to accept reality; if he hadn’t found you yet, if you hadn’t found him…you weren’t going to. The world was too big, there were too many people, too many places. You weren’t supposed to have found him in the first place, so how could you find each other again?

Four days after arriving in Baltimore, Ryan stepped out onto the highway, thumb up and accepted a ride to Philadelphia, his last stop before New York City.

---

He’d totally forgotten that one of Kenny’s friends lived in Philadelphia, and so as soon as he arrived in the city, he headed to her house after texting to ask if he could stay for a few days. Ryan dropped his stuff off, grabbed the spare key, and headed out to explore the city. After a few hours, he’d seen the charm of the downtown area, the parks, the Zoo, the people. It was a bustling city full of history, and as he walked, he felt calm, felt settled. He didn’t understand it, but when he pulled his guitar out that night to play, he felt better than he had in weeks - and it showed. Ryan had a larger crowd his first night n Philadelphia than he’d had since St. Louis, and it felt good. He’d asked some of the people watching where a good spot to set up during the day would be, and many of them recommended Rittenhouse Square, telling him that it was easy to connect with other musicians there, that he’d fit right in. Tomorrow. I’ll spend all day in that park.

So when Ryan had set up at Rittenhouse Square the following morning, taking a seat beneath a tall tree, he’d been excited because the square had already been bustling, even at 10:00 am. Students, professionals - people that were simply enjoying the warm temperatures streamed by, and Ryan soaked it all in. His wrist felt good, his voice sounded good, and Ryan played happily, conversing with people as they stopped to make conversation with him, offering a genuine smile or a laugh multiple times. He was having fun, but his mood changed throughout the day as he thought of you, began to doubt his decision to stop moving. If I stop traveling, I’ll never find you. If I keep moving, there’s a chance. Knowing that he wasn’t going to be able to keep up with anything upbeat, Ryan chose a melancholy song, clearing his throat and taking a deep breath as he pressed record and started strumming, playing the song for the first time in a few years.

…Well I've heard there was a secret chord That David played and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do you? Well it goes like this: The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah…

Ryan closed his eyes as he played, getting lost in the song. He thought of his life. He thought of his friends. He thought of his family. He thought of you. He thought of your hands and your eyes and your face. He remembered your voice, remembered how sincere you’d been with him. He sang as if he were singing for you, throat aching from the strain of letting himself get emotionally wrapped up in the song, but he knew it was the only way. It has to be authentic.

The song continued and Ryan’s voice held, though it wavered a few times, particularly near the end of the song. When he finished playing it, he paused, opening his eyes and looking up at the first man who’d stepped forward to speak to him, leaning in to tuck a few bills into his case. “I’ve never heard anyone sing that song like that, man.” Ryan looked at him, feeling his heart pounding as he caught his breath. That was… I didn’t know… Ryan opened his mouth to speak to the man, thanking him, but froze as he heard a female voice from his right.

“You’re really good.” There’s no way. His fingers tightened around the guitar neck and he forgot that he was speaking to someone as he turned slowly toward the sound. “Your voice is incredible.” She’s here. This isn’t possible. Ryan looked down, quickly setting the guitar back into the case and stood, eyes finding yours again. There’s no way. This isn’t happening. He watched as you stepped toward him, too, before stopping, your eyes bright in the early afternoon sun. She’s from Philadelphia. Of course she is. “Do you know any Robert Johnson, Ryan?” You got the last sentence out but he barely heard it; all he could hear was a roaring in his ears as he stepped closer to you - only a few steps away now. He heard your words from Vegas again - I found you in a crowd of hundreds of people - and felt his heart pounding even as he stepped closer still.

“Are you…really…” He spoke spoke directly to you and even as the tears ran down your face you nodded, reaching out for him. His fingers touched your face, cupping your cheek and you gasped, a sob escaping your throat as your own fingers closed around the fabric of his (your) shirt, tugging on it. “Oh God.” His hand slid around to the back of your head and he pulled you to his chest, his other arm circling around your back, holding you tightly. After a few moments, your free hand moved up to grip his shoulder, and as he tilted his head downward, pressing his lips to the top of your head. He knew that he was crying too, but he didn’t care. He kissed the top of your head again before tilting his head to rest his cheek against it. “I told you I’d see you again.”

---

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harveywritings92 · 5 years

Text

Bedfellows ch 2

The following is a non profit fan based story, Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment .

please support the official release.

I gain no profit from this nor do I own anything other then OCs and whatever sprouts from my imagination. Thanks for reading!

That morning Vex was awoken the to sound of someone banging on her door, She looked around groggily Genji was gone she did have to checked the feeds on her computer to know so was the car he must went back to base. She cleared her sore throat as her body woke up "Just a sec." She called out was feeling not as shitty then she was yesterday.

the joints in her legs popped in protest as Vex got up from her futon and went to her frontdoor only to find it locked...Vex cocked a brow she was seriously impressed, Genji didn't even trip the alarm! She's gotta ask the cyborg how he does that! she unfastened the locks and found a police officer standing there. "Yes?" the brunette said eyeing the cop nervously wondering why they were here for?

"Ma'am are you the owner the residence?"

"Yes, what's this about?"

"Well, Maybe you can answer that, considering there are three injured men that claimed a "demon" attacked them on your property."

"....I'm sorry?"

Vex said bemused as she looked at the cop like he just said the sky had turn green and grass was blue, pretty much said that she had no idea what he was talking about! she went on to explain that she was sick last night and still was today, and there was no way she would attack anyone for no reason... then she went cold and a curdling feeling settled in her stomach when she recalled when Genji had disappeared and the screaming... Could he have? The cop seem notice her inner turmoil. but before he could interrogate her farther his omnic partner came from Vex's backyard.

"Ey, Roy think I found the Demon." they said sarcastically the human cop or Roy and Vex look at each other as they followed after it, What the silver eyed girl saw in that backyard could only be described as a war zone it was a literal bloody mess and more confusing to the short woman was the alarming amount of power tools scattered around the yard.

"Those aren't mine..." She said warily as the omnic held up an rusted old TV antenna with a black shredded tarp stuck to it, then pointed at a dead raccoon. "I think our 'Victims" were actually the bad guys, they must've tried to break in." they pointed at the broken fence and the scratches on Vex's back door. "Then this fell off the roof startling the men who startled family of raccoons, which caused all this..."

The bot explained then found a switch blade in the grass which also, matched the injuries on the men, the human cop seem skeptical until Vex spoke up "Out of curiosity, was one of these men obese with greasy blond hair, wearing a sweat stained blue tracksuit, and smelled like stale beer and rotten milk?" The brunette asked with a sniffle the cops didn't even need to answer; the look of disdain on the human officer's face pretty said enough.

"That sicko has been stalking and sexually harassing me since I first moved here!" she huffed obviously disgusted and borderline freaking out that Derek had tried to break into her home; planning to to do god knows to her! she remembered the way the way he looked at the night before and felt bile rise from her throat. Vex went pale broke out into a cold sweat her body felt like it was on fire all of the sudden, before either cop asked if she was okay she threw up into her miserable excuse of vegetable garden, the omnic officer tossed the antenna aside and started rubbing the sick girl's back. "He tried approaching me last night.." the sick girl croaked. "My friend scared him off, I thought that was the end of it.." she wince feeling a headache coming on, the officers could tell this woman was in no way a threat a breeze could knock her over right now.

The cops then asked Vex if she wanted to press charges but, not wanting to draw any more attention to herself refused, Besides just by looking at the carnage in her backyard told her Genji did enough damage to teach that drunken pervert not to bother her again, The cops finally left letting Vex go back to bed. she spent most of the day taking cough medicine, sleeping and watching internet videos...and worrying how Genji was coping without her, hopefully they had mission to keep him occupied so he didn't have to be alone.

At the OW base

Unbeknownst the silver eyed brunette; Genji had stolen one of her hoodies and was using it like a pillow case, it helped that it smelled like his friend, but it wasn't the same. Over the past two months he'd grown accustomed to the feel of warmth and the security of a second heartbeat next to him, Genji sighed he felt lonely without hearing the breathing soft and little mumbles Vex made when she was in a deep sleep.

It gave the black haired cyborg assurance that he had someone there cling to when the dread of deafening solitude was too much to handle, But alas he can't control how the human body works. so, he'd have to make due until Vex was better... Needless to say, Genji did not have a good night, he'd sleep for a few minutes than wake up, rinse and repeat.

The next week he was standoffish and cranky, everyone could sense it and avoided the cyborg more so then usual, except for that annoying group of his 'admirers' they tried pushing themselves on him and offering to keep him warmer better then Vex could, He'd turn them off by having Mcree read off a list of ridiculous demands he and Vex had written.

It was around 10 am on Tuesday when Genji was the middle of training when he heard commander Reyes walk into the training room with a familiar short figure wandering behind him talking to the intimidating commander. "So, I have to saturate the soil twice a day?" She asked Reyes nodded taking a sip of his coffee, The short woman paused and thought this over " Huh,That's why my tomatoes haven't been coming in." the brunette muttered before locking eyes with a certain cyborg.

Vex, her sudden presence nearly caused Genji to take a couple bullets to the face! they were rubber bullets. but still... Ouch! He manage to snap back into focus to deflect the rest with his sword before, dashing forward flipping over obstacles and pining his opponent down, He then sheathed his weapon and bowed to a very unimpressed Mcree, much to Vex's astonishment the brunette has meditated and done yoga with her edgy sleep buddy, but Vex has never actually seen Genji train before.

She stared at the scene both impressed and incredulously as Mcree teased and accused the ninja about showing off in front of his girlfriend" the cyborg ignored him and approached the short brunette, he silently rested his palm against her forehead feeling her temperature his bionics let out steam the intense glare in his eyes softened a little "You look better..." he said somewhat briskly very aware that Reyes and Jesse were watching, "I feel better..." Vex said curtly as her lips formed a thin line she seemed angry.

Genji felt his artificial stomach sink wondering if he had done something to upset her? He turned to commander Reyes who just gave him a little nod as he chatted with Jesse over his strategies, at that the ninja grabbed Vex's arm and escorted her out of the training room. While Mcree shook his head at the twosome in disbelief. "I just don't get em' Boss, how does Shimada sleep next to that almost every night and not tap it?" The cowboy bellowed envy lacing his tone "I know he has the equipment for it!" *And it's bigger than mine...*

He hissed throwing his hands in the air in exasperation Commander Reyes shook his head at the younger man's antics. "Jesse, men can be friends with women without adding benefits to the mix." the Latin man said matter-o-factly just as Mcree pointed a finger at the commander's face and yelled "Blasphemy" in a demonic voice before Reyes threatened to break his hand if he ever pointed at him again! then ordered the cowboy to drop and give him twenty!

Meanwhile

Genji had led Vex to small secluded part of the base where they could talk in private. Before the cyborg could even get a word out the brunette blurted out "You got the cops called on me!" he gawked at her bemused before recalling the incident in the backyard. "oh..S-sorry." he stammered out the words felt foreign to him it had been a while since the cyborg had to apologize to someone. Then he asked what happened Vex pretty gave him the sum up, cops showed up took her out back showed her the war zone that was her backyard."

The Omnic deputy theorized Derek and his buddies were hopped up on alcohol and drugs, got spooked by an old TV antenna falling off her roof which woke up a family of raccoons; chaos broke out and they put themselves in the hospital. She asked if it was Derek and had panic attack and threw up then, then the human cop explained how the perv kept making passes and jeering at female hospital staff and tried to grope a female officer who was sent to take their statement, so he wasn't going to be a problem for a while.

Genji grimaced behind his mask he wanted to ask why didn't she pressed charges or ask for protection, then he recalled why they called her neighborhood the Gallows; It was run by the Scarecrow Kings a gang with old saying 'Get caught squealing and you get hanged' It didn't even have to involve the the gang in anyway; they heard you went to the police for some reason or another? suddenly accidents happen and outsiders were no exception.

Vex knew this, and the last thing she wanted to do was piss off the SCK. They've been a thorn in Over/Blackwatch's side for while now too...There have actually been rumors of mole working in BW feeding info to the gang, But so far any leads of said mole have come up empty...

"Have there been any other problems?"

"Aside from your creepy fan club giving me the stink eye?"

"..." he gave her stern look clearly not in tolerating mood today, the brunette resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"No."

Vex huffed Genji seemed to relax before gesturing for the silver eyed woman to follow him, she complied the cyborg led her to an elevator causing the woman to cock a brow. "So, where are you taking me exactly?" She asked warily as she stepped inside the elevator with Genji who shifted awkwardly on his feet as it started up. "Dr. Ziegler has asking about you, won't stop badgering me bring you around." He huffed Vex didn't missed how tired he sounded or the bags under his eyes. Maybe after meeting miss Ziegler she'll see if Genji is up for a power nap?

Needless to say the duo certainly turned a lot a heads anyone who was wandering or just in the hallway stopped what they were doing and stared a the abnormal twosome, Blackwatch's homicidal 'Tin-man' toddling around with the rumored silver-eyed janitor! now that was something to gawked at! some started whispering amongst themselves, It took one icy red glare shot by said cyborg caused their unwanted audience to disperse and go back to what they were doing.

When they reached the med-bay Angela was just finishing up a setting up a large machine Vex assumed was used to examine Genji her assumptions were proven correct as a holographic model and graph of said cyborg started up in a T-pose while the blonde doctor was busy. looking down at a chart unaware of the tag-along the ninja had brought in with him. "Alright Genji everything's set up you can ju-" her blue eyes finally looked up from the chart and locked on to a person who certainly wasn't Genji, it took a moment for Angela to realize who she was staring at before noticing her original patient, the blond just pointed at Vex then at Genji as if having mental conversation with the ninja who face-palmed and sighed loudly. "Yes." Confirming that he had brought the friend he had told her about.

"Oh, It's so nice to finally meet you..."

"Vex."

"Vex...you have silver eyes."

"So I've been told..."

After a few minutes of watching Angela hook Genji up to the machine waiting for it to finish scanning him, Vex started having an inkling that this wasn't just a courtesy call, and may have been a double check-up set by a certain ninja, considering Dr. Ziegler would try to subtly ask how she was feeling, shining a small light in her eyes, after few of this Vex gave the the OK for the medic to just do check to cause this was just embarrassing them both. "So, those are your natural eyes?" Angel still hung up on the short brunettes eye color. "Yeah, mutation I inherited from...[sigh] my father." she hissed out the word venomously, malice for the man wasn't lost on Genji and Angela.

The doctor cleared her throat pick up a small syringe"I'm going to draw a blood sample if that alright?" Vex shrugged pulling her sleeve up. "I don't mind, but you may need a tougher needle then that." the blond looked confused but shrugged and used the one in her hand, brought it up to Vex's arm and it wouldn't go in, Angela pressed down a bit and the needle seem to go in this time; she pulled the piston back, but nothing came out...the blond's brow furrowed and she pulled the syringe away and blanched the needle was bent! as Vex let out a sigh.

"Told ya, you'd need a tougher needle." When she said this Genji's heart-rate spike up wondering what was going on? as Angela was blocking his view she moved giving him a view of the bent needle as the blond grabbed another larger syringe, this time it did it's job Angela drew a blood sample and brought up another machined she explain it was used to make sure there were no diseases or problems with Vex's blood. it should be done analyzing in a couple minutes, then turned her attention back to Genji the sync-unit had finished the body scan.

"Okay, Genji everything thing seems to be functioning alright, you limbs are responding and your reaction time is getting quicker ...by the way your heart spiked a moment, were you worried about Vex just now?" the cyborg glared at her then averted eyes to the wall, Angela snicker he must've forgot he was still hooked up to the scanner because his temperature spiked too.

As she was unhooking Genji from his restraints and the Sync-unitm Vex's blood work came back, Angela nearly fainted when she saw the results that was impossible! according to these Vex's health states were abnormal, almost enhanced was like Morrison and Reyes, but then she checked again realized this wasn't science, there was no trace of surgical implants or biochemical-reinforcements. Her near superhuman abilities were all natural born traits.

She briefly glanced Vex out of the corner of her, the silver eyed girl smirked and winked at the flabbergasted doctor, Before Genji's voice brought her back to earth "Is there something wrong?" Genji asked gruffly his red eyes were looking up at Vex's lab work bemused then at Angela.

the medic composed herself quickly then finished un hooking the cyborg. "Nothing in fact she's in perfect health!" She chirped leaving the ninja skeptical, until Vex interjected. "It's fine Gen, if I was sick it'd be hard to miss trust me." she hopped off the examination table, As the ninja still gave Angela a suspicious glance before leaving with Vex, Angela calmly reminded him of his next check-up and wave them off and as soon as the door shut the medic's smile dropped as she calmly turned her comm on and called. "Commander Morrison, is there something you'd like to tell me?" she inquired sternly.

later

Vex was mopping the floors she hummed a tune, knowing exactly what Angela was doing right now, calling Morrison demanding an explanation why someone with Vex's abilities was working as janitor of all things?! It sucked she wanted to out right tell somebody why she was really working for Blackwatch, but if she wanted to catch who's leaking info the Scarcrows she gonna have to be as cunning as them, She'll admit it was impressive how the mole was able get in so easily, she or he must've hacked or used enhancement to boost their stats a tad enough to give them leverage in the recruitment program...

Vex was brought out of her thoughts by someone dumping their soda and yogurt on her nice clean floor! She looked up and saw Blondie and her gaggle of turkey necks giggling at her. "Whoops better clean that up toilet-scrubber." the Cheeto sneered before walking off laughing along with her group, Vex let out a frustrated grumble she could not wait for this job to be over! Just so she can punch that bitch in her fake plastic fucking nose.

The brunette sighed and got to clean the mess up when she noticed something unusual, the door to the tactical server room was open! Vex swallowed as she quietly pushed her cart and mop to the side, started walking towards the open door as she got closer she reached for one of her throwing knives, only someone to call out to her, She saw Jesse walking up to her causing the short woman to backtrack. "Oh, uh.. Jesse what do you need?" the cowboy scratched the back of his head kind of uncomfortable.

"I heard Shimada took you to see Mercy, I thought you was still sick or something?" now any normal girl would giggle knowing a cute guy like Jesse was worried about them, unfortunately he's really not her type. "Genji was just being concerned, wanted to make sure I wasn't coming in cos' I was bored." she explained to Mcree who seemed genuinely surprised that Shimada actually showed an emotion other than anger. "So, what are you doing now?" the cowboy asked the silver eyed woman gave him a blank stare and slowly looked down.

He followed her and blanched seeing muddy foot prints trailing behind him along with the soda/yogurt puddle she still had yet to clean...Mcree swallowed and look back at Vex to see her smiling very sweetly and she said. "Trying to control my bloodlust.~" She beamed causing Mcree to shudder as he muttered an apology and scurried away.

Vex's smile was gone as soon as Mcree left she looked back to the TS room to see it now closed, the silver eyed woman cussed under her breath, She missed them! Vex took a deep breath and returned to her original task and got to mopping the hall....Again.

#Overwatch #blackwatch #blackwatch genji #Genji x OC #fanfiction #Gabriel Reyes #Jesse Mcree #angela ziegler #fanfic

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